Chapter 19 Quiz
Instructions: Choose the best answer for each question. After completing the quiz, review the explanations for any questions you missed.
1. The working definition of flirtation used in this chapter emphasizes which combination of features?
a) Sincerity, directness, and clarity of romantic intent b) Indirectness, playfulness, deniability, and operation within a friendly-sociability frame c) Biological drive, hormonal signaling, and involuntary behavioral display d) Strategic calculation, deliberate manipulation, and outcome-focused behavior
Answer: b — Flirtation is defined as the use of indirect, playful, and deniable signals of potential romantic interest, occurring within the frame of ordinary friendly sociability. These features are not accidental but constitutive of flirtation's function.
2. In Goffman's dramaturgical framework, "face work" refers to:
a) The use of facial expressions to communicate emotional states b) The management of public presentations to protect one's own dignity and that of others c) Physical grooming behaviors performed before and during social interaction d) The ability to detect microexpressions in others' facial behavior
Answer: b — Goffman's concept of face work refers to the strategies people use to maintain positive social identities (their "face") and to protect others' face in interaction.
3. Gagnon and Simon's sexual script theory operates at which levels?
a) Evolutionary, neurological, and behavioral b) Cultural, interpersonal, and intrapsychic c) Conscious, preconscious, and unconscious d) Public, private, and intimate
Answer: b — Sexual script theory identifies three levels: cultural scripts (shared social norms), interpersonal scripts (negotiated between specific people), and intrapsychic scripts (personal desires and fantasies).
4. The Perper-Moore flirtation sequence is best characterized as:
a) A unilateral script performed by one party to attract another b) A mutually negotiated, reciprocation-dependent sequence where each phase requires the other party's behavioral acceptance c) A biologically fixed behavioral program triggered by physical attraction d) A culturally specific Western courtship protocol
Answer: b — The sequence's most important theoretical feature is its mutual and reciprocation-dependent structure. Each phase of escalation requires the other party's acceptance; failure to reciprocate terminates the sequence.
5. Monica Moore's 1985 ethological research on women's courtship behavior found that:
a) Women rarely initiate courtship in naturalistic settings b) The rate of female solicitation behaviors was strongly predictive of whether a man would approach, suggesting women actively initiate early courtship phases c) Physical attractiveness alone was the strongest predictor of approach by men d) Women's courtship solicitation behaviors were uniformly verbal rather than nonverbal
Answer: b — Moore documented 52 non-contact solicitation behaviors performed by women, and found that their rate of these behaviors strongly predicted male approach — suggesting that women's early-phase solicitation behavior is a key driver of courtship initiation.
6. The "face-protection hypothesis" proposes that flirtation's ambiguity functions to:
a) Increase the attractiveness of the flirtatious person by appearing mysterious b) Protect both parties from the face costs of explicit rejection c) Test whether the other person is sufficiently socially intelligent to deserve pursuit d) Comply with cultural norms that prohibit direct romantic declaration
Answer: b — The face-protection hypothesis, grounded in Goffman's framework, proposes that flirtation's deniability allows signals to be sent at low face-cost: if not reciprocated, neither party need acknowledge that a signal was sent.
7. The chapter discusses "recreational flirtation" as distinct from "terminal flirtation." The key difference is:
a) Recreational flirtation is insincere; terminal flirtation is sincere b) Recreational flirtation is enjoyable play not intended to lead to romantic escalation; terminal flirtation is the opening phase of courtship that is expected to resolve into explicit romantic engagement c) Recreational flirtation occurs in public settings; terminal flirtation occurs in private d) Recreational flirtation is characteristic of younger people; terminal flirtation of older people
Answer: b — Both forms are genuine flirtation; they differ in function. A common misreading occurs when one party treats recreational flirtation as terminal while the other intends it as recreational.
8. Research on response latency in digital flirtation finds that:
a) Faster responses consistently signal romantic interest b) Response time carries no signal value in text-based communication c) Response latency takes on elevated signal weight in text-based communication because many nonverbal channels are unavailable as cues d) Delayed responses are universally interpreted as disinterest
Answer: c — When gaze, proximity, touch, and vocal prosody are unavailable, timing of response becomes one of the few available indicators of engagement and interest, and therefore carries more signal weight than in face-to-face interaction.
9. The sexual overperception bias refers to:
a) Women's tendency to perceive male behavior as more aggressive than intended b) The tendency (documented more strongly in men) to interpret ambiguous social cues as indicating more sexual or romantic interest than the other person intends c) The tendency for both sexes to underestimate their own attractiveness d) The perception that sexual attractiveness is more important than personality in mate selection
Answer: b — The sexual overperception bias (Haselton et al.) is a documented population tendency, more common in men in heterosexual contexts, to interpret ambiguous friendly behavior as indicating romantic or sexual interest.
10. The Okafor-Reyes "dual-structure model" of flirtation proposes:
a) That flirtation has both biological and social causes operating simultaneously b) That flirtation has a universal deep structure (graduated, deniable, reciprocation-based) and a culturally variable surface structure (specific behaviors) c) That flirtation serves two functions simultaneously: signaling interest and testing rejection tolerance d) That flirtatious interactions are governed by two different scripts depending on who initiates
Answer: b — The dual-structure model emerged from comparing behavioral coding data across six countries and proposed that structural features of flirtation are consistent across cultures while the specific behavioral content varies.
11. Research on cross-sex friendship perception asymmetry finds that:
a) Women consistently overestimate men's romantic interest in them b) Men consistently overestimate women friends' romantic interest, and men are more likely to be romantically interested in female friends than women are in male friends c) Romantic interest is equally common in cross-sex friendships regardless of gender d) The "friend zone" is primarily a feature of relationships between people of the same sex
Answer: b — Multiple studies have documented this asymmetry. Importantly, the research does not attribute this to deceptive behavior by women, but to the interpretive tendencies of romantically interested men.
12. The chapter concludes that the ambiguity characteristic of flirtation is best understood as:
a) A communication failure that technology may eventually solve b) Evidence that people are fundamentally dishonest about their romantic intentions c) A functional feature of the behavior's design that serves multiple interests simultaneously d) A cultural artifact that more direct cultures have largely overcome
Answer: c — Ambiguity serves face-protection, quality-testing, arousal maintenance, and strategic coordination functions simultaneously. It is the behavior's central architecture, not an imperfection.