Hesitation to Share Bad News: By-Product of Verbal Message Planning or Functional Communication Behavior?

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-2015

Publication Source

Communication Research

Volume Number

42

Issue Number

2

First Page

213

Last Page

236

Publisher

Sage Publications Inc.

ISSN

0093-6502

Abstract

Research on bad news delivery reveals a reliable temporal delay in the onset of the bad news message from the sender to the receiver. Two experiments utilized a false feedback test design to determine whether the delay is better accounted for by negative verbal message planning, politeness, or both. Both studies (Ns = 135 and 138) featured participant-senders who delivered either scripted or unscripted good, neutral, or bad news to a stranger. News valence, delay before response, and reluctance were measured. Both experiments supported the functional politeness explanation. Study 2 also supported the negative verbal message-planning explanation. Implications and limitations are discussed.

Keywords

Mum Effect, Bad News, Reluctance, Cognitive Biases, Interpersonal Communication, Negative Feedback, Negativity Bias, Transmission, Reluctance, Difficult, Goals

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