What if you could determine a person’s relative socio-economic status (SES) from just talking to them? A new study suggests you can.

A person’s socio-economic status is a catch-all category for factors such as a person’s wealth, occupation and what kind of schools they’ve attended. SES is correlated with how much affinity we feel for another group of people; we tend to like and identify more with people from a similar SES as us. Rich people hang out with rich people, middle class with middle class, and so on. That’s why you rarely find people marrying people from significantly different SES classes.

Two researchers out of the University of California, Berkeley ran a deceptively simple experiment. They simply videotaped two people getting to know one another in a one-on-one interview session. They then looked for two types of behaviors: “disengagement behaviors (including fidgeting with personal objects and doodling) and engagement behaviors (including head nodding, laughing and eye contact).”

Those behaviors — called “nonverbal cues” — tipped off a person’s SES:

Volunteers whose parents were from upper SES backgrounds displayed more disengagement-related behaviors compared to participants from lower SES backgrounds.

In addition, when a separate group of observers were shown 60 second clips of the videos, they were able to correctly guess the participants’ SES background, based on their body language.

Why do higher SES backgrounds appear to be less concerned with social interactions with others?

[The study's authors] surmise that people from upper SES backgrounds who are wealthy and have access to prestigious institutions tend to be less dependent on others. “This lack of dependence among upper SES people is displayed in their nonverbal behaviors during social interactions,” they noted.

It’s often said that nonverbal cues are so important in our communication with others. Here’s another reason why, because it provides us with almost instantaneous access to information about the other person’s SES. Such information may better help two people communicate clearly with one another and stop one from making a social faux pas.

Read the full article: Rich Man, Poor Man: Study shows body language can indicate socioeconomic status

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

Like this author?
Catch up on other posts by John M. Grohol, PsyD (or subscribe to their feed).

Comments

This post currently has 4 comments. You can read the comments or leave your own thoughts on our new comments page.

Trackbacks

I May Know How Much Money You Make - World of Psychology | creditcancelation.com (2/5/2009)

Recent Research - Body Language and SES « Language Fix (2/7/2009)

Intense Conversations » Blog Archive » Whats Your Freakin Problem?: the Question Others Ask You, You Ask … (2/11/2009)

    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 4 Feb 2009
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.