Politeness Judgments in Personal Relationships

Abstract

Brown and Levinson's politeness theory specifies five strategies for achieving politeness. Although the strategies are presented as ordered and mutually exclusive, there is reason to believe that they are neither The authors offer an alternative means of classifying requests that is grounded in the phenomenology of the social actor and depends on three message features: explicitness, dominance, and argument. Separate samples of judges viewed video clips of one college student attempting to influence another and provided judgments ofpoliteness (n = 100), explicitness and overall dominance (n = 435), linguistic dominance (n = 80), or argument (n = 60). A regression analysis predicting politeness was conducted using message as the unit of analysis. The results showed a strong, negative relationship between politeness and dominance and weaker, positive associations with explicitness and argument.

Enjoy! Hedonic Consumption and Compliance with Assertive Messages

“…Research has shown that language can affect perceptions and attitudes (e.g., Luna, Peracchio, and de Juan 2003). For example, people who encounter direct language infer a closer or more familiar relationship with their counterparts (Dillard et al 1997). We also know language affects emotions and mood (e.g., Leggitt and Gibbs 2000).…”

Academic Misconduct: A Goals–Plans–Action Approach to Peer Confrontation and Whistle-Blowing

“…Dillard et al (1989) investigated several message characteristics in the initial test of the GPA: directness, positivity, and logic. Across a variety of research traditions, directness or explicitness has emerged as a central message characteristic in influence scholarship (e.g., Blum-Kulka, 1987, Cody, Canary, & Smith, 1994Dillard, Wilson, Tusing, & Kinney, 1997;Wiseman & Schenck-Hamlin, 1981). The activated goal structure of a situation should lead to planning; planning should predict the use of explicit messages.…”

The Communications of Influence through Technology-Enabled Media

“…Dillard, Wilson, Tusing and Kinney's (1997) review of similar studies found evidence for at least three dimensions of conceptual differentiation which seemed to hold constant across the literature. Explicitness was the extent to which the goal of the influence message was made clear within the communicated message itself.…”