Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 2.
Posture as affected by two kinds of social relationship
Table 2 shows that, in both cultures, German and Japanese, frequency is decreased,
duration is longer, no mirroring occurs, posture made is smaller and more rigid when
interaction is going on with high credential person than with someone for the first
time. The evidence from previous studies supports these results. In the case of
mirroring, for example, our results indicate that no mirroring occurs with regard to
interactions involving high status individuals which provides support for study [8]
that, as low power (relative to one's interaction partner) generally prime people to be
relationally vigilant, and thus make the less or absence of behavioral mirroring The
fourth and seventh rows in Table 2 also indicate that the proportions (FT/HS) for each
variable are similar for the two cultures. For example, the proportion relating to
Frequency in Japanese culture comes to 3.48 and that for German culture 3.4, which
suggests that social relationships affect non-verbal behavior in both cultures in a
uniform way.
5 Establishing a Socio Cultural Model Based on Empirical Data
By combining the empirical data extracted from the main analysis involving socio-
cultural characteristics, a network model was thereby able to be created. In creating
this network model, many questions arose such as how a social, cultural, and
behavioral network might first arise; what comes first, social criteria, cultural factors,
or non-verbal behavior?; can culture and social factors help in promoting non-verbal
norms or, conversely, do non-verbal norms underpin culture or social relationships.
5.1 The Relationship between Social Factors, Cultural Factors, and Non-verbal
Behavior
Evidence deriving from previous studies has shown how culture influences the way
individuals interpret and evaluate social interactions [14]. In South Korea and Japan,
for example, rigid posture indicates that a person holds an influential position whereas
in America a relaxed posture gives the impression that a person is credible [14]. In
addition, and as explained in section 3, the vertical concept of “power” is regarded as
positive by the Japanese and Chinese whereas this is seen as negative by westerners
[11]. Thus, cultures tend to vary in attitudes towards social roles and relationships.
