ABSTRACT
Visual behavior appears to provide information at several different communicational levels in social interaction. This chapter discusses research done at each of these communicational levels—individual differences, regulation of conversation, information-seeking, influence, and attribution—in turn. It examines applications of techniques to the area of interpersonal attraction at several levels. The chapter raises some unanswered questions and speculates about some directions which the study of visual behavior might take in the future. The data on personality correlates of visual behavior are weaker and less consistent than the data on sex differences, often showing as interactions with other variables rather than as main effects. In studying visual behavior as a diagnostic cue or a consistent attribute of persons or groups, the researcher need not concern himself with its functions within a social interaction. The other major area in which visual behavior has become involved with traditional social psychological variables is that of interpersonal attraction.
