This chapter is concerned with the role of nonverbal behavior in the self-presentation of men of known and established social power. It is focused on nonverbal behaviors emitted in a very specific and relatively unique situation, namely the presidential debates. These debates provide a national audience the opportunity to contrast and compare the stress-handling capabilities of two persons, each of whom seeks to convince the audience that the nation would prosper more in his or her competent and trustworthy hands than it would in those of the opponent.

Multichannel Transmission of Nonverbal Behavior and the Perception of Powerful Men: The Presidential Debates of 1976

A study was designed to measure the effects of the source's body type--endomorph (fat), mesomorph (muscular), and ectomorph (thin) --in relation to his perceived credibility by the receiver. Five hundred subjects were randomly selected from a basic communication course and, in groups of twenty in a classroom setting, were each given a noncontroversial speech in manuscript form together with a picture of an assigned source. After reading the message, the subject then filled out a semantic differential designed to measure four dimensions of source credibility. Besides the three body type conditions, there was a control condition in which the subjects evaluated the source in the absence of a picture. The basic design was replicated for male and female sources. Sex of source, sex of respondent, and the three body type conditions were the independent variables analyzed, and results showed that there were no differences between credibility according to body type, although,the ectomorph female was rated highest on the sociability dimension of source credibility. (Author/SH) Communication Research Center Illinois State University

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Kevin Toomb

Papers

The Relationship of Somatotype to Source Credibility.