Witkower and colleagues explored the universality of nonverbal cuing. They share that “Two universal strategies for attaining influence—dominance, or the use of intimidation and force to obtain power, and prestige, or garnering respect by demonstrating knowledge and expertise—are communicated through distinct nonverbal displays in North America. . . . we demonstrate that the dominance display is recognized by the Mayangna, a small-scale society in rural Nicaragua, and by Canadian children as young as 2 and 3 years old. We also find that the prestige display is reliably differentiated from dominance by both groups, and judged as a high-rank signal by the Mayangna. However, members of the Mayangna confused the prestige display with happiness, and children confused the prestige display with a neutral expression. Overall, findings are consistent with a ubiquitous and early-emerging ability to recognize dominance.”
Zachary Witkower, Alexander Hill, Anthea Pun, Andrew Baron, Jeremy Koster, and Jessica Tracy. “Nonverbal Displays of Dominance and Prestige: Evidence for Cross-Cultural and Early-Emerging Recognition.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, in press, https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001481