This book addresses two lively and active research communities, those concerned with issues of gender and those dealing with nonverbal behavior. The wide range of professional and popular interest in both these topics convinced us that presen tations of current work by researchers who bring these two areas of research together would prove stimulating. These presentations not only address the state of current work on gender and nonverbal behavior, but also suggest new avenues of investigation for those interested primarily in either topic. In other words, the questions that nonverbal communication researchers address when considering gender bring new directions to gender-related research and a like effect can be expected when the questions raised in gender studies are applied to research in nonverbal behavior. Dispersion of ideas may take another form as well. Both gender and nonverbal behavior research are notably interdisciplinary. Perhaps because of their pervasive nature, both topics have attracted the attention of a diversity of scholars. Most of the contributions in the present volume are by psychologists, but their intended audience is broad. Linguists, sociologists, and anthropologists are among those who share similar research interests. Moreover, the ideas presented here are of interest to practitioners as well as scholars. From corporations to clinics, people are interested in the subtle expression and negotiation of sex roles through non verbal communication.
