Editing Contempt (section)

===Gender differences===
Men and women act differently when displaying contempt in same-sex relationships. Not only do girls engage in more non-verbal forms of social aggression than boys do, girls dissembled more than boys do, speaking nicely but making mean faces. In the research provided by [[Marion Underwood|Underwood]] (2004) in their laboratory observation studies where they watch girls and boys in an identical social context in which best friends respond to a provoking newcomer, gender differences emerge not for the verbal behaviours, but for the nonverbal expressions of disdain and contempt (which are so glaring that they were observed with high degrees of inter-coder reliability by both women and men, kappa's exceeding .8; Underwood et al., 2003).<ref name="Underwood, M. K. 2004">{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1177/0959353504044637| title = III. Glares of Contempt, Eye Rolls of Disgust and Turning Away to Exclude: Non-Verbal Forms of Social Aggression among Girls| year = 2004| last1 = Underwood | first1 = M. K.|author-link1=Marion Underwood| journal = Feminism & Psychology| volume = 14| issue = 3| pages = 371–375| s2cid = 143410476}}</ref>

There are several reasons why girls can be especially prone to conveying anger and contempt by nonverbal forms of [[social exclusion]]. One reason may be that girls are socialized from infancy onward to be overtly nice and conciliatory and do so to avoid conflict whenever possible, for fear of being [[social rejection|excluded from relationships]], disliked, or punished (for reviews, see Brown and Gilligan, 1993; Underwood, 2003; Zahn-Waxler, 2000). Non-verbal forms of social exclusion may be a highly effective way to harm someone with relatively few social consequences; the hurtful act is fleeting, can often be executed behind the victim's back and outside of the watchful eyes of adults, and, even if caught, mean faces are typically not punished. Second, girls may hurt one another via non-verbal expressions of exclusion or disdain because girls and women may gaze at others more for reasons related to their lower social status, so as to learn as much as possible about others' needs and desires (see LaFrance, 2002, for a discussion of 'Smile boycotts and other body politics', p.&nbsp;319).

Because girls and women gaze at others often, perhaps mean glares are more effective as a means of wielding power. Third, non-verbal forms of social exclusion may be powerful for girls because their relationships involve high levels of intimacy and self-disclosure (see Buhrmester and Prager, 1995, for a review), thus even subtle indicators of exclusion are threatening. Fourth, non-verbal forms of social exclusion may be powerful for girls because although they fiercely desire and defend popularity with other girls, they dread being labelled as 'stuck up' (Merten, 1997).<ref name="Underwood, M. K. 2004"/>