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Knowing which behaviors people perceive as dominant is an important part of being a competent nonverbal communicator (Carney et al., 2005). Review the following list of behaviors and rank the behaviors in order from 1 to 10, where 1 is the least dominant behavior and 10 is the most dominant.
Please note that your score for this activity will not be recorded unless your instructor has assigned the activity.
This Self-Quiz is adapted from Table 1 of Sillars et al. (2000, p. 488).
a. Using a loud voice while you talk
b. Exhibiting confident and self-assured facial expressions
c. Initiating the shaking of an interaction partner’s hand
d. Having your arms crossed or folded on your chest during an encounter
e. Displaying unresponsive facial expressions toward your conversational partner
f. Using broad, large, and expansive hand gestures while you talk
g. Showing facial disgust
h. Paying attention to your conversational partner
i. Manipulating objects during the conversation (e.g., playing with your pencil or fiddling with a piece of paper)
j. Engaging in “invasive” behaviors with your conversational partner, such as standing too close, touching, and pointing
You listed the behaviors in the following order (from most dominant to least dominant):
The five most dominant behaviors (in order from most dominant to least dominant) are b, c, f, j, and g. If you ranked those five items in the 6–10 range, you have ranked them correctly.