Shifting perceptions: A quantitative experimental study regarding the effect of positive kinesics on people who stutter

Abstract

This study examined the effects of kinesics on male adolescents’ perception of people who stutter (PWS). Twenty-four male participants from an all-boys high school viewed an audio clip of a person who stutters (PWS), a video of a PWS exhibiting positive kinesics, and a video of a PWS exhibiting negative kinesics. After each clip, the participant completed a semantic differential survey to determine the participant’s perception of the speaker. The data was analyzed statistically using XLSTAT. The results indicate that positive kinesics has a significant positive effect on perception, kinesics has a significantly different effect on the perception of male and female speakers, and the perceptions of PWS may have shifted over time. The results did not show that negative kinesics had a significant negative effect on the perception of PWS.

Keywords

• stuttering
• stutterer
• people who stutter
• kinesics
• perception