Behavioral variability in interpersonal interactions can be structured by two dimensions: communion (warmth to coldness) and agency (dominance to submissiveness). These interactions typically display complementarity - interactants are similar in warmth and opposite in dominance - and interactions with more complementarity are associated with more positive outcomes. From an interpersonal perspective, individuals employ behaviors that minimize anxiety. Therefore, anxiety is one possible result of deviation from complementarity. To test this hypothesis at the behavioral level, I evaluated the association between different indicators of affect and interpersonal behaviors across different time intervals in an interaction between a participant and a confederate. Deviation from warmth complementarity within the interaction was associated with increased negative affect. Similar effects were not identified for deviations from dominance complementarity. In addition, participants' cold behavior was significantly related to participants' skin conductance within the interaction, and liking the confederate less, and reporting greater negative affect. A number of null results across tests of hypotheses regarding physiological reactions and regarding dominance complementarity provide new direction for future analysis and research.
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