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How Accurate Are Cultural & Gender Stereotypes?
Robert Shuter's article "A Field Study of Nonverbal Communication in Germany, Italy, and the United States"1 is about a study he conducted because a lack of substantive evidence in the findings of others left him dissatisfied. Sociologist Edward Hall, for example, said Italians are contact oriented and converse at a close distance while Americans and Germans are primarily noncontact interactants. Other sociologists like Ashley Montagu and Desmond Morris say basically the same as Hall. THE FOCUS Mr. Shuter conducted the study focusing on two questions: 1. Do Germans, Italians, and Americans differ significantly in the frequency and type of contact in which they engage, and the distance and axis (angle) at which they interact? 2. Do male/male, male/female, and female/female pairs differ significantly in the frequency and type of contact in which they engage, and the distance and axis (angle) at which they interact? METHOD OF MEASUREMENT The measure for axis used was a scale of zero to twelve. Zero being a face to face position and twelve being a back to back position. The more directly the interactants faced each other the lower the score. The measure for distance between the interactants used was an estimate rounded to the nearest half foot. The scale used to record the tactile response of the interactants was six behavioral categories. These are contact, embrace, touch, spot touch, hold, and spot hold. Each category is defined as follows:
contact - any type of tactile response between two interactants. In addition, tactile responses were categorized according to the length of time the behavior was displayed, with spot touch and spot hold lasting less than two seconds, and touch and hold surpassing this time limit. THE SUBJECTS The study was conducted in Venice, Italy; Heidelberg, Germany; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin with national residents of each particular country and in the subject's natural environment - typically parks, storefronts, and street corners - and composed of two person groups. About four months were spent in the three countries. THE RESULTS The results showed that sex and culture significantly influenced each variable, however, many of the results between sexes and cultures were not significantly different so I will mention only those that did differ significantly. HIGHEST AND LOWEST MEAN AXIS SCORES The dyads with the lowest mean axis score (those who faced each other most directly) were the American female-female dyads followed closely by the German male-male dyads. The dyads with the highest mean axis score were American male-male dyads followed by the German male-female dyads. HIGHEST AND LOWEST MEAN DISTANCE MEASUREMENTS The Italian male-male dyads had the lowest mean distance measurement (were closest to each other) followed by the Italian female-female dyads. The American male-male dyads had the highest mean distance measurement followed by the American male-female dyads. HIGHEST AND LOWEST MEAN CONTACT MEASURES The Italian male-male dyads had a very significantly higher mean contact measure (had more contact) than all other dyads followed by Italian male-female dyads. American male-male dyads had the lowest mean contact measure followed by American male-female dyads. INTERESTING MEAN MEASUREMENTS We see it is inaccurate to suggest that a particular culture behaves a certain way because the behavior changes in respect to whether it is two males, a male and a female, or two females who are interacting in a given culture. For example, American male-male dyads had the highest mean axis score but the American female-female dyads had the lowest compared to the Italians and Germans. So it is not typical for Americans to stand more directly in front of each other during interaction because that only applies to the female-female dyads. Likewise it is neither typically American to have the highest axis during interaction because that is only a trait of the American male-male dyads. Another example is that one cannot say that Italians are always more tactile because while it may be true that the Italian male-male dyad had the highest mean contact measure, the German, who is supposedly non-tactile, female-female dyad had a higher mean contact measure than the Italian female-female one. Nor can we stereotype either sex for behaving any certain way. Males are supposedly less tactile than females. While this may be true in America it is not true in Italy. American males had the lowest mean contact measure while Italian males had the highest. CONCLUSION So a culture can be contact and noncontact oriented at the same time as either sex can be contact and noncontact oriented. Also, they can differ in the other two types of nonverbal communication included in this study, distance and axis. In conclusion, axis, distance, and tactility is a product of social conditioning which differs in various societies and for the different dyads in those societies. PERSONAL EVALUATION I think the study is about as accurate and objective as it could be and proves the inaccuracy of stereotypes. The author mentioned conducting further studies on other societies to further prove these conclusions. I agree in thinking that this would help on having a greater understanding of nonverbal communication, but I am confident that any further findings would only prove the findings of this study. _______________ 1 Shuter, R. (1977). A Field Study of Non-Verbal Communication in Germany, Italy, & the United States. Communication Monographs, 44 (4), 298-305.
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