The opposing cultural mandates to enact both affiliative female-role and dominant therapist-role nonverbal behaviors is examined through initial impressions of a female therapist. Client perception is assessed through therapist evaluations for the social meaning and influence of feminine smiling, masculine visual dominance, and an exploratory, combination, asymmetrical arm posture/hand gesture. Subject gender and analogue type (videotape versus role-play) were also hypothesized to be pertinent mitigators of perception. After 10-minute counseling sessions in a therapy setting, 125 male and female students evaluated the therapist highest with traditional female smiling, but subject gender interacted with other behaviors. Females showed an aversion to the nonresponsive visual dominance that males rated high, whereas males disliked the expansive arm posture/thinker gesture that females rated high. Therapist expertness, attractiveness, and trustworthiness ratings were also highly dependent on the medium of the message, with unique differences exhibited between observer and participant judgments
