A few thoughts on a Big Brother question...
If you've been watching this summer's Big Brother in the UK you'll know that Winston, Ash and Helen hang out together and I've been asked why they often sit with Helen in the middle.
In terms of gender dynamics and behaviour, when you have two men and one woman, the woman tends to sit in the middle. This goes deep into unconscious behaviour where it's quite natural for the woman to be "protected" in this way. If there was any threat to the group she would be between the two males.
Also some research suggests that right-handed women will sit with a favoured male on their left so if they turn towards him they can use their right hand for grooming behaviour. However this isn't always the case and different seating arrangements don't necessarily mean anything significant. And from memory I can't remember if Ash usually sits on Helen's left.
I think (from memory) the guys swap sides because the housemates come in and out of the group so often at the smoking area. Plus lately there's been more physical and relationship distance between Winston and Helen - he's frequently in a separate chair and not seated on the outside sofa.
The dynamic of these three sitting together in the Big Brother house is slightly different because Helen is a very strong character - although much of that so-called "strength" comes from wanting to protect her vulnerability. And as she started life in the house in the role of a very loud and out spoken "Queen bee", the men sat around her like her "deputies" or "sergeants at arms" - a description that's not far off considering the heated arguments in the first few weeks in the house.
To his credit Winston has on occasion stood up to Helen – most significantly after Girl Power week when she had a right go at Ashleigh.
Ash to a lesser extent has occasionally cajoled her to behave better - even as early as the first week when Helen was having a go at Jale for staring at her, etc.
But it was too little, too late to stop some of the worst rows in the first few weeks. And that's too bad because as I pointed out on Monday night's programme Helen's started going through the transitional stages - the Cake of Change :) - and might've started going through them earlier and become a calmer person sooner.
I think they didn't step in more strongly in the early days because of not wanting to look like argumentative people to the viewers plus they didn't want to risk their place in Helen's hierarchy. And they didn't want Helen to turn her guns on them! Now she's shown she's better able to handle conflict without blowing up.
It's an interesting question and social-group research suggests that the way people seat themselves gives away lots about their place in the hierarchy...where are you sitting today?
Happy Wednesday, Pamx