Nonverbal Behavior And The Evolution Of Cooperation
Evolutionary theory has been successful in explaining the effect that physical attractiveness has on interpersonal attraction. Physical attractive¬ness is not arbitrary; attractive people have better health outcomes and better fertility outcomes, making them better potential mates (Langlois et al., 2000). From an evolutionary perspective, it is adaptive for us to be attracted to people who are marked for success. However, physical attrac¬tiveness is not the only interpersonal attribute that contributes to interper¬sonal attraction. Sabatelli and Rubin (1986) found that emotional expres¬sivity is also positively related to judgments of liking, and that this effect is independent of physical attractiveness and appears to have equal or close
Definitions
Expressivity
We define emotional expressivity as in Sabatelli and Rubin’s (1986) original work, as the accuracy with which an individual displays/commu¬nicates his or her emotions. Individuals high in emotional expressivity are good senders: that is, they clearly display their emotions, including both positive and negative emotions. “Expressivity” or sending accuracy is dis¬tinguished from total nonverbal activity or “expressiveness” in that some persons (i.e., psychiatric patients) can show much uncoordinated expres¬siveness that actually degrades communication accuracy (Buck, Goldman, Easton, & Norelli Smith, 1998). In the present view, “expressivity” implies a moderate level of “expressiveness” such that all else equal, receivers watching the display have a relatively easy time accurately inferring the sender’s emotional state.
To understand why being attracted to someone who is emotionally expressive is adaptive, it makes sense to consider the more basic role of emotional expression. From an evolutionary perspective, the expression of emotion is adaptive because it facilitates social communication and social coordination (Buck, 1984). Individuals can coordinate their actions based upon an ongoing and...
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