Power moves: complementarity in dominant and submissive nonverbal behavior

“…defer to rather than dispute their high-ranking counterparts, generally result in better group coordination and performance as well as more satisfying relationships (e.g., de Kwaadsteniet & van Dijk 2010,Halevy et al. 2011, Ronay et al. 2012, Tiedens & Fragale 2003, Tiedens et al. 2007).”

“In this case, synchrony would be a way to communicate interest and approval (see also Kendon, 1970), while dissynchrony, the opposite effect, would be a means of interrupting or modifying the current interaction (cf. Tiedens and Fragale, 2003 ).”

“Although verbal means such as commands and speeches are the most obvious displays of power, nonverbal means such as interpersonal distance and body postures can equally serve to communicate and establish power relations (Hall, Coats, & Smith LeBeau, 2005; Tiedens & Fragale, 2003).”

“This effect may be through contagion, wherein the anger spreads to the observer, or through some form of reaction or response, where the observer develops a different, and most likely complimentary emotion such as fear (Hareli & Rafaeli, 2008; Tiedens & Fragale, 2003).”

“Similarly, in social control situations, involving dominance and submission, expansive gestures by one interactant predict contraction movements by the other, and vice versa (Tiedens & Fragale, 2003).”

“When individuals are faced with a dominant confederate, their submissive behavior is evident from the fact that they tend to adopt constricted postures (Tiedens & Fragale, 2003).”

“Most research so far focused on complementarity reactions, that is, responding to dominance with submission and vice-versa (Tiedens and Fragale 2003).”

“Research studies indicate that when people respond to dominant individuals with submissive behaviors there is greater comfort and liking and when dominant individuals meet with dominant people there is less liking between them and the interaction is less comfortable (Tiedens & Fragale, 2003).”

“Importantly, extensive debriefing of all participants, using a funneled debriefing procedure (see Bargh & Chartrand, 2000), revealed that they were not aware that complementarity had occurred or that it had affected the comfort level of the interaction (Tiedens & Fragale, 2003).”

“Studies show that, relative to high-status and highpower individuals, low-status and low-power individuals suppress emotional display, refrain from showing true emotion, and restrict body movement (Ellyson & Dovidio, 1985; Keltner, Young, Heerey, Oemig, & Monarch, 1998; Tiedens & Fragale, 2003).”

“Perceivers can detect group hierarchy rapidly and accurately, from static face displays or from dynamic dyadic interactions (Hall et al., 2005; Phillips et al., 2018; Tiedens & Fragale, 2003).”

“…inhibition, such as hiding one’s attitudes (Bradberry, 2006; Eaker, Sullivan, Kelly-Hayes, D’Agostino, & Benjamin, 2007; Frank & Thomas, 2003; Krieger, 1990) or behavioral constriction (Tiedens & Fragale, 2003), may also play a mediating role in the relationship between social hierarchy and health.”

“Conversely, those who are dominant would prefer interaction partners who would cooperate and even submit to their wishes (Grant et al., 2011; Kiesler, 1983; Moskowitz, 2009; Tiedens & Fragale, 2003).”

“Studies 3 and 4 capitalized on the bodily grounding of power (e.g., Carney, Cuddy, &Yap, 2010; Huang, Galinsky, Gruenfeld, & Guillory, 2011; Tiedens & Fragale, 2003) and manipulated incidental power through body postures (Study 3) and hand gestures (Study 4).”

“…in social psychology shows that people unconsciously prefer rank-based relationships in task settings and automatically organize themselves into dominant or submissive positions even when there is no formal hierarchy present (Tiedens and Fragale, 2003; Tiedens, Unzueta, and Young, 2007).”

“Hierarchies coordinate action by establishing complementary roles, norms, and expectations (Dornbusch and Scott 1975, Tiedens and Fragale 2003, Halevy et al. 2012, Anicich et al. 2015).”

“That is, individuals display a form of dominance through postural expansion (i.e., extending limbs) when their equal status though unfamiliar counterpart displays submission through postural constriction (i.e., bringing limbs inward; Tiedens & Fragale, 2003).”

“Strong informal hierarchies may facilitate complementarity of members actions (i.e., one leads, the other follows), thus paving the way for smooth cooperation and coordination (De Kwaadsteniet & van Dijk, 2010; Tiedens & Fragale, 2003).”

“…al., 2000), (b) some evidence suggests that agency/dominancerelated mate preferences follow an opposites-attracts principle (Dryer & Horowitz, 1997; Tiedens & Fragale, 2003), and (c) much available evidence is based on participants whose mate preference reports were hypothetical, inconsequential,…”

“…1992; Aries, Gold & Weigel, 1983; Bales, Cohen & Williamson, 1979; De Raad, 1999; Horowitz et al., 1991; Kiesler, Goldston & Schmidt, 1991; Luxen, 2005; Mehrabian, 1969; Moskowitz, 1994; Piontowski, 1982; Schmid Mast, 2002; Tiedens & Fragale, 2003) genutzt sowie eigene Ergänzungen vorgenommen.”

“In contrast, there is ample evidence suggesting that body posture has a unique one-to-one relationship with powerful roles and dominant psychological states (Carney, Cuddy, & Yap, in press; Hall et al., 2005; Huang et al., in press; Riskind & Gotay, 1982; Tiedens & Fragale, 2003).”

“We also discuss recent findings suggesting that the extent to which partners frame their relationship goals in terms of promotion versus prevention orientations can affect important relationship outcomes.”

“It is therefore unlikely that the applicant’s behavior was just an expression of the recruiter’s behavior (i.e., mimicking the recruiter’s immediacy behavior; Tiedens and Fragale 2003).”

“For example, in face-to-face settings, research has shown that having one person express dominance through postural shifts may decrease others’ dominant expressions, while expressing submissiveness increases others’ dominant stances (Tiedens & Fragale, 2003).”

“DOI: 10.7554/eLife.00932 2 of 7 Research article facial and body postures, serve as an indicator of social status (Maestripieri, 1996; Tiedens and Fragale, 2003).”

“Importantly, not all types of interaction are imitative; sometimes the behaviour of one interactant predicts non-matching, complementary behaviours in another (Tiedens & Fragale, 2003).”

“Future investigations must establish whether these effects are found when other individuals react in a non-imitative, but predictable, manner; for example, when dominant body postures result in complementary submissive postures of an interactant (Tiedens & Fragale, 2003).”

“In the experiments conducted by Van Kleef & Côté (2007), the expresser was angry toward the recipient’s offer (“This offer makes me really angry”).”

“Second, they could show a complementarity bias (Dryer & Horowitz, 1997; Tiedens & Fragale, 2003), preferring people with levels of self-control opposite to their own.”

“One aspect of emotional mimicry is that it can be affected by dominant or submissive characteristics of interaction [38].”

“We thus predict that they will refrain their expression of the indebtedness emotion (Chiang et al., 2021; Menges et al., 2015; Tiedens & Fragale, 2003).”

“complementarity distinction [42, 43]; (c) these processes are moderated by individual dispositions (traits).”

“…individuals are expected to adopt an expansive posture to assert dominance over others; research suggests that when interacting with a person adopting a dominant (i.e., expansive) stance, partners will respond with an act of submission (i.e., postural constriction; Tiedens & Fragale, 2003).”

“Previous work has shown that human dominance and submissiveness in social interactions are greatly impacted by natural non-verbal communication [29].”

“…holders and their subordinates, the cognitive strategies they use for solving problems, and the (non-verbal) behavior they direct to each other (Anderson and Berdahl, 2002; Keltner et al., 2003; Tiedens and Fragale, 2003; Anderson and Galinsky, 2006; Smith and Trope, 2006; Carney et al., 2010).”

“…posture on distinctively religious attitudes and cognition, our study supplements previous studies of the role of physical body posture on feelings of power and dominance (Carney et al., 2010; deWaal, 1982; Ellyson & Dovidio, 1985; Hall et al., 2005; Huang et al., 2011; Tiedens & Fragale, 2003).”

“Previous research has found that complementarity in interactions between college students leads to satisfaction and comfort during the interaction, and positive feelings about the interaction partner (Dryer & Horowitz, 1997; Tiedens & Fragale, 2003; Tracey 2004).”

“Indeed, research has shown that submissive behaviors tend to elicit complementary dominant responses, and vice versa, thereby creating social hierarchy (Tiedens & Fragale, 2003).”

“A central theme in the study of dominance is the distinction between symmetry and complementarity (Bateson, 1958; Dryer & Horowitz, 1997; Parks, 1977; Rogers & Escudero, 2004; Tiedens & Fragale, 2003).”

“Parallel to this literature, Tiedens and Fragale (2003) have shown that nonverbal complementary behavior can occur in an interpersonal interaction as a way of facilitating bonds between people in a cooperative setting.”

“Occupying space through body expansion can be achieved by moving one’s limbs (arms and legs) away from oneself (Tiedens and Fragale 2003).”

“(2005) found that powerful individuals are perceived as having more erect posture, and other evidence suggests that executives can acquire status (and increase their own testosterone levels) by standing taller and taking up more space (Tiedens and Fragale, 2003).”

“However, analyses of interpersonal behaviors have repeatedly found preferences for complementarity1 on the variable of dominance (Benjamin, 1996; Dryer & Horowitz, 1997; Locke & Sadler, 2007; Markey, Funder, & Ozer, 2003; Sadler & Woody, 2003; Tiedens & Fragale, 2003; Tracey, 1994).”

“…to be complementary, with one person’s greater power being linked to an interaction partner’s lesser power (see, for example, Kraus & Mendes, 2014; Tiedens & Fragale, 2003), increases in actors’ psychological sense of power should be accompanied by decreases in targets’ psychological sense of…”

“The formation of hierarchies is ubiquitous (Bales, 1950; Berger, Conner, & Fisek, 1974; Tiedens & Fragale, 2003).”

“The procedure used by Tiedens and Fragale (2003) shows several similarities with the procedure that we used to create a supportive That is, when participants interacted in a competitive context, interpersonal touch decreased participants’ helping behavior towards the person invoking the touch.”

“Previous studies in social psychology [20] have shown that observers can respond to dominant behaviors with mimicry or complementarity behaviors, where the former amounts to a reproduction of the behavior of the dominant person and the latter to an opposite behavior.”

“…conflict and signal to other (i.e., more dominant) parties that they do not pose a threat (Archer, 1988; Caryl, 1988; Schenkel, 1967), and humans who are not in a position of power behave submissively with their superiors so as to maintain smooth social interactions (Tiedens & Fragale, 2003).”

“Our measure of amplitude of peaks of velocity average captures the latter aspect and not expansiveness as operationalized in the nonverbal behavior literature (e.g., Tiedens and Fragale 2003).”

“In the same vein, fear can be seen as a ffi liative because it signals submissiveness, which, when displayed by an outgroup member can induce dominant behavior (Tiedens & Fragale, 2003).”

“In less cooperative settings, people can influence each other through demonstrating and perceiving of power, or dominance (Tiedens & Fragale, 2003), which may also indicate the power holder’s capacity to approach goals (Keltner et al., 2003).”