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

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