The German parliament provides transcripts of the parliamentary sessions. These transcripts contain the original wording of given speeches and how often speakers received applause or were heckled. For statistical analysis applause per speech length (in seconds) and heckling per speech length were correlated with stick figure ratings. The number of trait ratings Endocrinology antagonist for the stick figure clips ranged from 18 to
22. Each personality dimension of the Big Five questionnaire (i.e., TIPI) consisted of two items. For this reason we used simple bivariate correlations to measure the reliability of the scales (Table 1). Analyses revealed high reliabilities for extraversion and agreeableness, a moderate reliability for conscientiousness and a relatively low one for openness. Reliability for emotional stability was unacceptably low. For this reason we did separate
analyses for both items of emotional stability. Trait ratings were averaged for each speaker. Correlations between ratings revealed a wide range of interdependencies (Table 2). The prominent intercorrelations between dominance, agreeableness, and extraversion were of special importance, because ratings in these categories were noteworthy predictors of the applause the speakers received throughout their speeches (Table 3). More precisely, speakers whose stick-figures were perceived as being high on dominance and high on extraversion but low on agreeableness received www.selleckchem.com/products/pci-32765.html more applause from their colleagues in the plenum. Less pronounced but still non-negligible relationships were found between both items of emotional stability (i.e., calm, emotionally stable and anxious, easily upset) and applause and between trustworthiness and applause. Thus, to a certain degree speakers who received more applause were perceived as
less calm and emotionally stable, as more anxious and easily upset, and as less trustworthy. No effects of importance were found between trait ratings and hecklings. Our findings indicate that some of the trait ratings we collected through are more than mere attributions. They have ecological validity because they in part reflected how the audience in the plenary reacted to the speakers. In other words, abstract displays of a speaker’s body movements can be a sufficient source of information to make predictions about real life outcomes. This underlines that people are sensitive to motion cues and are able to use them for quick judgments in social encounters. Dominance is frequently associated with acts or displays of forcefulness and assertiveness (Buss & Craik, 1980) and appears to express itself in behaviors, which are clearly visible and affect the social environment. A similar reasoning applies to extraversion. It is also a personality trait that is clearly visible in nonverbal behaviors (e.g., Kenny et al., 1992). Hence, it was plausible to expect that dominance and extraversion have an impact on audience reactions.