ALL TOUCHES ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL: EFFECTS OF FORM AND DURATION ON OBSERVERS' INTERPRETATIONS OF AN EMBRACE Kory Floyd ABSTRACT: While several investigations have been directed at identifying the inter- pretations and perceptual outcomes of nonverbal behaviors, many have presented the stimulus behaviors in a static and unidimensional form that does not take into account the potential influences of their form, duration, or other dynamic features. The present experiment examined the effects of form and duration on observers' perceptions of, and attributions about, an embrace. One hundred sixty-four partici- pants observed a videotape of two communicators enacting one of three forms of embrace for one of three durations. The results indicate that the egalitarianism of an embrace and its duration influence perceptions of its expectedness, its evaluation, how intimate it is interpreted to be, and what kind of relational attributions are made about the communicators. Several investigations have elucidated the evaluations and interpreta- tions invoked by nonverbal behaviors in interpersonal contexts (Bernieri, Gillis, David, & Grahe, 1996; Burgoon, 1991; Burgoon & Le Poire, 1999; Kenny, 1994). Many such studies have focused specifically on how nonver- bal behaviors are assessed not by senders or receivers but by third-party observers. For instance, Derlega, Lewis, Harrison, Winstead, and Costanza (1989) showed participants a series of photographs depicting communica- tors hugging each other or putting their arms around each others' waists and assessed the extent to which they viewed the touches as normative. Similarly, Burgoon and Walther (1990) showed participants one of 56 pho- tographs depicting several nonverbal behaviors and assessed participants' evaluations and interpretations of the behaviors. Of importance in such studies has been the extent to which perceptual outcomes are resident in the behaviors themselves or are strongly influ- Kory Floyd is assistant professor of communication at Cleveland State University. The author thanks the students who served as research assistants in these studies. Address correspondence to the author at Department of Communication, Cleveland State University, 2001 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland OH 44115; e-mail: k.floyd@csuohio.edu. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 23(4), Winter 1999 © 1999 Human Sciences Press, Inc. 283