Water-Witching in the United States

easily read, the differentiation may in part be explained by these expectations instead of actual performance. Jurors who used more of the group's scarce resource, their common time together, were perceived by respondents to be the jurors desired if they were on trial. This finding suggests that whatever the criteria used by the groups to regulate the contributions of their members, these criteria were broadly held. The differential distribution of speaking time was achieved without serious violation of developing group norms. Further, face to face experience, in contrast with occupational stereotypes, tended to smooth post-meeting choices into a gradient parallel to both activity rates and status. These findings and others reported constitute a preliminary clarification of the small group process within the deliberation. While our data do little to illuminate how differentiation arises, the status gradients emerge clearly in as brief a time as the one or two hour discussions under study. Though careful study will be required to determine the degree to which one may generalize from status in the larger social system to a particular interaction context, the demonstration of the continuity of status in the present case should be noted in any theory directed to the description of the process of status affirmation and maintenance.