Lannutti and Camero use Nonverbal Expectancy Violation Theory to examine women’s perceptions of flirtatious behavior, specifically how alcohol consumption leads to physical attractiveness. Lannutti and Camero reveal that the theory posits that individuals develop expectations, based on personal experiences, social norms, or known idiosyncrasies of the other person about the nonverbal behavior of another person during an interaction. This is especially true of immediacy behaviors, including touch. When the expected immediacy level is met during an interaction, it is relatively nonarousing. When the expected immediacy level is violated, especially such that the behavior is more immediate than expected, an evaluation process about the violation …show more content…
K. and Steele, C. M. A major concept that is incorporated throughout this entire study is reward valence. A person’s reward value may be determined by qualities that person brings to an interaction (e.g., status, previous relationship) or derived from the person’s behavior during interaction itself. It is also important to note that nonverbal expectancy violations theory may be applied to explain differences in women’s evaluations of a man who engages in more immediate nonverbal behavior than expected while flirting with her. Furthermore, Lannutti and Cameron argue that alcohol consumption’s influence on perceptions of social behavior increases the chances of misunderstandings and negative consequences in sexual and flirtatious interactions, but previous alcohol studies have not specifically focused on women’s perceptions of men’s flirtatious nonverbal behavior. Since women have not been the focus before, they decide to examine drinking and nondrinking women’s perceptions of three types of immediate contact enacted by an attractive or unattractive man while flirting with a woman in a bar: putting his arm around a woman, putting his hand on a woman’s thigh, and attempting to kiss a woman. Through this study, Lannutti and Cameron ask a number of females who have and have not been drinking different scenarios including the three listed in the previous sentence. They record whether or not sober or drunk females perceive certain male acts as a violation and then have them rate men by attractiveness. The results are scored on a number scale and are plugged into a chart, which makes this research