GIRLS DONT TALK ABOUT GARAGES - PERCEPTIONS OF CONVERSATION IN SAME-SEX AND CROSS-SEX FRIENDSHIPS

This investigation examined respondents' perceptions of differences in the conversational behavior of same-sex friends and cross-sex friends . Respondents read brief transcripts of conversations from which all o bvious gender identifiers had been removed and then were asked to indi cate whether the conversations were between male friends, female frien ds, or cross-sex friends and to specify what features of the conversat ions had led them to their judgment. Respondents were better than expe cted by chance at accurately distinguishing the conversations, and by far the most common feature that respondents used in making their disc riminations was the topic being discussed. However, other important di scriminating features included the use of profanity and certain slang terms and expressions, the occurrence of dysfluencies, how certain top ics were discussed, the presence of gossip, the tone of the discussion , the openness of the conversation, and how much the conversants seeme d to know about what they were discussing. Based on the respondents' o bservations, a number of propositions were then formulated representin g beliefs that many individuals apparently hold in their relational sc hemata about conversational behavior in same-sex and cross-sex friends hips.