The objective of this study is to examine the utilization of hand gestures for nonverbal communication and identify potential gender disparities. Despite a commonly held belief, particularly in the United States, that women are highly skilled at using hand gestures, research results contradict this assertion.
Some scholars and experts have conducted studies that indicate the contrary. Men and women are likely to use hand gestures to the same extent, although it may depend on the situation and their audience. The key distinction between genders is the type of gesture used. Women tend to use more limited or smaller gestures, while men tend to make grander and larger gestures in terms of space. This aligns with the notion that men are generally more expansive in relation to the available space in any given situation.
Introduction
According to the saying ‘actions speak louder than words’, a person’s nonverbal communication holds valuable information. Mannerisms can potentially reveal if someone is nervous or uneasy. Lack of eye contact or shifting position may indicate a lack of attention or disinterest in what is being said.
The text explores the topic of nonverbal communication and its various interpretations. This study focuses on the frequency of hand gestures during conversations or interactions, specifically examining any gender differences in their usage. It includes a literature review.
A variety of actions and behaviors can be classified as nonverbal behavior, but this paper focuses on hand gestures as a form of nonverbal communication. Hand gestures can include signals or intentional movements that serve as a significant means of communication without using words. Examples of such gestures include pointing, waving, and using fingers to represent numbers. Although determining the frequency of hand gestures through observation is not a precise science, Wietz asserts that gestures are essentially expressive movements that have acquired specific qualities in order to communicate and be understood (1979).
Before the emergence of language, gestures served as the simplest form of communication between people. As language evolved, the need for hand gestures diminished. Nevertheless, many people still have a natural inclination to use their hands when communicating, making hand gestures a prevalent way to complement spoken words.
According to Louann Brizendine’s 2007 book, The Female Brain, women have approximately 20,000 communication events daily compared to men who typically experience around 7,000 communication events per day.
Communication events involve various forms of expression, such as spoken words, vocal sounds, gestures, facial expressions, and body language signals. According to estimates, women speak approximately 6,000 to 8,000 words per day and make 2,000 to 3,000 vocal sounds along with 8,000 to 10,000 gestures and body language signals. In contrast, Brizendine’s research contradicts these numbers, suggesting that men use around 2,000 to 4,000 words daily and produce only 1,000 to 2.,00 vocal sounds and as few as 2-3k gestures/body language signals each day. However, a study conducted by Dovidio et al. (1988) presents different findings.
According to Liberman, an individual’s personal characteristics and the topic being discussed influence their communication style. The overall results suggest that men, in general, are more verbally expressive than women. This specific study highlights a significant difference as men spoke 43% more than women. Furthermore, when analyzing non-verbal cues, it was observed that men exhibited 80% more gestures and made 623% more chin thrusts.
Dovidio et al. discovered that females demonstrated a higher incidence of smiling (28%), self-touching (7%), and laughing (46%) in comparison to males. It is worth mentioning that the study did not examine eyebrow movements. Nevertheless, this research does not provide evidence for Liberman’s assertion that women generally have three times more “communication events” than men.
The study of hand gestures is not precise, and there is a lack of research, particularly regarding gender differences. Existing research on this topic is often embedded within more broad studies on nonverbal communication. Research from 4Imprint Blue Papers in 2009 suggests that men and women use different forms of body language.
- Women tend to gesture less than men.
- Women break eye contact sooner than men do.
- Women stand slightly closer to one another, face each other more, and touch more than men do with other men.
- Men tend to cross their arms or protect their torso less than women do.
- Men prefer side-by-side interaction, while women prefer face-to-face.
- Men send and interpret fewer facial expressions than women.
- Men naturally tend to have more relaxed of aloof postures (4Imprint, 2009).
According to O’Connell and Cuthbertson’s research on group dynamics, they discovered that men and women display noticeable variations in the frequency and style of their hand movements.
According to the authors, women and men have distinct differences in their use of nonverbal communication. Women tend to use fewer gestures overall, especially one-handed gestures, and often keep their hands down on the chair arms or tape them. In contrast, men tend to use more gestures, including one-handed gestures, and frequently move their legs and feet or tap their feet. It is important to understand these subtle differences because a gesture or facial expression may not hold the same meaning for different individuals, particularly when considering gender (O’Connell, Cuthbertson 2008, p. 102). Moreover, University of Pennsylvania students conducted a study solely focused on hand gestures which resulted in interesting and relevant findings.
Participants in the study included males and females aged 17 to 22. The observations were conducted in an informal setting, yielding interesting results. There were a total of 12 observed cases, with various participant configurations (male-male, male-female, and female-female), and the study was repeated twice.
In this study, the researcher employed a categorization system to classify five distinct types of gestures: greeting, identification, hands still, meaningless, and angry. The purpose was to investigate the hypothesis that American women tend to utilize hand gestures more frequently than American men during conversations. However, the findings were inconclusive as some patterns revealed higher usage of hand gestures by males while others indicated that women also employ hand gestures quite frequently. Furthermore, it was observed that men generally exhibit larger and more spatially expansive gestures compared to women (Mensah, 2000).
Method
On June 17, 2010, a team of three conducted an observation and comparison of hand gestures frequency between men and women. They chose a mall food court as their location at 6:30 p.m., where they initially observed a total of 25 people – 10 males and 15 females. At 7:30 p.m., they moved to the west side of the mall and observed another group consisting of
12 males and
10 females.
The final checkpoint position at the mall was relocated to the east side at 8:30 p.m. Additionally, a total of 25 individuals (10 males and 15 females) were observed at this new location. We recorded the frequency of hand gestures used by both genders throughout the observation period to analyze any potential disparities in their usage (Refer to Table 2 in the Appendix).
Discussion/Conclusion
Our research indicates that there is no notable distinction in nonverbal communication between males and females. Both genders communicate nonverbally in a comparable manner, expressing themselves or remaining unexpressive through their gestures during communication evenly. However, it should be noted that there is a noticeable difference in the frequency of gestures used by females from 6:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M.
Both males and females exhibit similar behavior during the 8:00 P.M. hour, mirroring their actions at 6:00 P.M. Further organized research will be necessary to obtain significant results regarding the usage and frequency of hand gestures among males and females. The hands are utilized in diverse ways across different geographical regions and cultures.
The way a simple introductory handshake is done can establish the atmosphere for a relationship. According to Gallois, culture plays a major role in the frequency of hand gestures during conversation. A study was conducted with Anglo-Americans, Jews from Eastern Europe, and Italians from New York to examine hand gestures. The findings indicated that Americans predominantly gestured with their hand and wrist, Jews used the lower half of their arm for gesturing, and Italians tended to gesture using their entire arm from the shoulder down (Gallois, 1997).
Despite the lack of a definitive conclusion, a recurring finding suggests that women historically have been commonly associated with active engagement in hand gestures. However, recent studies indicate that men are equally, if not more inclined to frequently employ hand gestures in conversation.
