Gendered Expectations for "Agreeableness" in Response to Requests and Opinions

To address the need for more direct assessment of gendered expectations for communication behaviors, we devised a novel experimental approach that tests whether expectations for "agreeableness" are more salient when evaluating male or female speakers in their affirmative responses to a friend's request or expression of opinion. Briefly, as lag times are introduced, it appears that females are expected to be more agreeable (or male delay is more tolerated), particularly when alignment with opinion is at stake or when a female is responding to another female. Findings are discussed in the context of Expectation Violations Theory.