All touches are not created equal: Effects of form and duration on observers' interpretations of an embrace

While several investigations have been directed at identifying the interpretations and perceptual outcomes of nonverbal behaviors, many have presented the stimulus behaviors in a static and unidimensional form that does not take into account the potential influences of their form, duration, or other dynamic features. The present experiment examined the effects of form and duration on observers' perceptions of, and attributions about, an embrace. One hundred sixty-four participants observed a videotape of two communicators enacting one of three forms of embrace for one of three durations. The results indicate that the egalitarianism of an embrace and its duration influence perceptions of its expectedness, its evaluation, how intimate it is interpreted to be, and what kind of relational attributions are made about the communicators. Kory Floyd is assistant professor of communication at Cleveland State University. The author thanks the students who served as research assistants in these studies.