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The present study generalized a previously observed reluctance to transmit bad news to a field situation in which the conveying of bad news is a natural, recurring phenomenon. In a sample of 27 applicants for aid to the disabled, the time taken to communicate the agency's decision to the client was longer if the decision was to deny aid than if it was to grant aid ( p < .08).

An experiment was conducted to test the proposition that rejection of help by a needy recipient constitutes a negative expectancy violation for the would-be helper. The helper will react to this self-threat by expressing negative affect, unfavorable evaluations of the recipient, low attraction to the recipient, and causal attributions for the rejection that cast the recipient in an unflattering light. To test these hypotheses, college freshmen were prompted to offer rules for word construction to a same-sex recipient (a confederate) who was described as needing remediation on vocabulary and who "failed" a practice task. After rejecting/accepting the help, the recipient failed or succeeded on a comparable task. The results were consistent with these predictions. Dispositionally high expectations of interpersonal success served to amplify helpers' reactions to rejection/acceptance.

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