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Biases in Interpersonal Communication: How Engineering Students Perceive Gender Typical Speech Acts in Teamwork
Author(s) -
Wolfe Joanna,
Powell Elizabeth
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of engineering education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.896
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 2168-9830
pISSN - 1069-4730
DOI - 10.1002/j.2168-9830.2009.tb01001.x
Subject(s) - teamwork , interpersonal communication , psychology , perception , strengths and weaknesses , social psychology , face (sociological concept) , applied psychology , speech communication , linguistics , political science , philosophy , neuroscience , law
This research investigates differences in how engineering and non‐engineering men and women perceive common speech acts in team settings. Participants completed surveys asking them to rate the speakers of three male typical and three female typical speech acts. Male engineering students were significantly harsher than other groups on female typical speech acts in which the speaker conceded weaknesses, even if this concession was for strategic purposes such as trying to help another teammate “save face.” This bias against female typical speech was consistent regardless of the speaker's gender, suggesting that students were reacting to speech patterns rather than to biological gender. These findings provide hope that women may be able to help manage perceptions of their everyday team interactions by avoiding statements that imply weaknesses, even if such speech is normal in other situations.