Nicholas A. Palomares

Virtual Gender Identity: The Linguistic Assimilation to Gendered Avatars in Computer-Mediated Communication

This research examined how individuals’ gendered avatar might alter their use of gender-based language (i.e., references to emotion, apologies, and tentative language) in text-based computer-mediated communication. Specifically, the experiment tested if men and women would linguistically assimilate a virtual gender identity intimated by randomly assigned gendered avatars (either matched or mismatched to their true gender). Results supported the notion that gender-matched avatars increase the likelihood of gender-typical language use, whereas gender-mismatched avatars promoted countertypical language, especially among women. The gender of a partner’s avatar, however, did not influence participants’ language. Results generally comport with self-categorization theory’s gender salience explanation of gender-based language use.

Women Are Sort of More Tentative Than Men, Aren't They?: How Men and Women Use Tentative Language Differently, Similarly, and Counterstereotypically as a Function of Gender Salience

Based on self-categorization theorys explanation for gender-based language use, male and female participants sent e-mail on a masculine, feminine, or gender-neutral topic to an ostensible male or female recipient (i.e., intergroup or intragroup dyads). As predicted, the topic affected if and how men and women used tentative language differently: For masculine topics, traditional gender differences emerged (i.e., women were more tentative than men) in intergroup, but not intragroup, contexts; for feminine topics, differences were counterstereotypical (i.e., men were more tentative than women) in intergroup contexts only; and for a gender-neutral topic, no differences resulted in either intra- or intergroup contexts. Moreover, gender salience partially mediated these effects in intergroup interactions only: Topic affected tentative language through gender salience in the mixed-sex condition (i.e., a conditional indirect effect).

The Dynamics of Goal Congruency and Cognitive Busyness in Goal Detection

An experiment examined a theory explaining how people detect others’ goals. The framework maintains that because components or factors (e.g., context, tactic) of interaction increase the accessibility of inferable goals, goal detection is a product of the goals these cognitive linkages activate. In dyadic initial interactions, one participant was randomly assigned as the pursuer and the other as the detector; detectors sought a goal varying in congruency (i.e., identical, concord, and discord) with pursuers’ goal. Detectors’ cognitive busyness was also manipulated. The level of efficiency at which pursuers sought their goal and the accuracy and certainty of detectors’ inference of pursuers’ goal were measured. Results generally confirmed hypotheses. Efficiency and accuracy were positively correlated only when (a) not-busy detectors’ goal was concordant with pursuers’ goal and (b) busy detectors’ goal was discordant with pursuers’ goal, whereas efficiency and certainty were positively correlated only for not-busy detectors. Other results dealt with how detectors’ perspective taking promotes accuracy for inefficient goal pursuit and how accuracy yields favorable ratings of pursuers’ communication competence when goal inferences are certain. Results are discussed theoretically and methodologically.

Are You Doing What I’m Doing? Goal Projection in Conversation

The primary focus of the current research is goal projection or the ascription of a perceiver’s own goal onto an interaction partner (i.e., target). Extending the finding that perceivers project their goal onto a target (Kawada, Oettingen, Gollwitzer, & Bargh, 2004), two studies applied a cognitive conceptualization of goal pursuit and detection to explain boundary conditions for goal projection in conversation. Experiment 1 demonstrated that the strength of the cognitive association between perceivers’ goal and the social context moderated projection: Projection was greater for strongly than moderately or weakly linked goals. Experiment 2 established that the target’s goal pursuit efficiency and the congruency between the perceiver’s and the target’s goals influenced projection: Compared with targets’ efficient pursuit of nonidentical goals, projection was greater (a) when the target and perceiver had the same goal regardless of efficiency or (b) when they had different goals but the target was inefficient.

Understanding Others’ Goals Depends on the Efficiency and Timing of Goal Pursuit

Goal understanding is the process by which interactants make inferences about others’ objectives during conversation. Previous research has examined goal understanding without concern for the timing of goal pursuit. Accordingly, an experiment examined the timing of pursuers’ efficiency in the communicative behavior employed to reach their goal. Results indicated that timing modified the relationship between pursuers’ efficiency and detectors’ accuracy and to a lesser extent detectors’ certainty. Efficiency was positively correlated with accuracy for the initial minute of a 5-minute interaction but not subsequent minutes.

Conversational Topic along a Continuum of Perspectives: Conceptual Issues

The literature regarding conversational topic is vast. Conversational topic, however, has various conceptualizations. For example, some studies examine topic changes, whereas others examine the broad subjects about which people talk. Four different perspectives (i.e., topic as a noun phrase, topic as a bounded unit, topic as a perception of language users, and topic as a subject matter of talk), focusing on different conceptions of topic for ostensibly different purposes, emerge across the literature, and, as a result, grasping the literature as a whole is difficult. This chapter highlights each perspective by pointing to the questions already answered and others remaining to be answered. In doing so, within each perspective, we review relevant research, offer critiques and suggestions for future research, and discuss conceptual issues. Spanning the four different perspectives, several general points elucidate commonalities throughout the conversational topic literature. We therefore present our own conceptualization of conversational topic following from our explication of the conceptual issues (such as topical abstractness, globality-locality, prototypicality, and focus) that emerge in light of the four perspectives. Finally, we draw conclusions based on our explication of conversational topic for various areas within the communication discipline.

The Potential of Electronic Communication and Information Technologies as Research Tools: Promise and Perils for the Future of Communication Research

Scholars across several disciplines praise the methodological advantages afforded to research endeavors by the use of electronic communication and information technologies. At the same time, however, scholars note several disadvantages stemming from the use of these tools. To assess the utility of electronic communication and information technologies as research tools, we synthesize work on the methodological issues surrounding the use of these technologies for the future of communication research. Our overarching goal is to review prior and current perspectives in order to appropriately assess and critique the use of electronic tools in research pursuits while informing future applications of these tools in the field. Throughout the chapter we articulate the argument that sound theoretical and methodological practices determine the appropriateness of the application of any particular tool. Accordingly, our focus is on the specific methodological concerns that arise with the use of electronic technologies in the conduct of research. We organize our discussion into six major sections: sampling issues; data integrity concerns, including the reliability and validity of research design and measures; the potential afforded by electronic communication and information technologies; contemporary ethical considerations; an explicit assessment of the future of communication research in view of the application of electronic technologies; and a concluding section that establishes the contribution of our review and briefly outlines outstanding issues.

Topic Avoidance, Goal Understanding, and Relational Perceptions Experimental Evidence

Much research demonstrates an inverse correlation between topic avoidance (or aspects of avoidance) and relational perceptions, such as satisfaction. These data are almost always correlational, which does not afford causal conclusions despite statistical techniques that simulate causality. We present experimental data (using a scenario method) that examine two constructs involved in topic avoidance—avoided topics and inferred goals that precipitate topic avoidance—and their effects on the relational perceptions of satisfaction, hurt, and distance in the context of friendship. Both topics and inferred goals led to changes in perceptions of the friendship. Specifically, participants who inferred that their friend avoided a topic for self-protection goals reported lower levels of satisfaction and higher levels of hurt and distance than those who inferred relationship-protection goals. This difference was especially true for the relationship-issue topic.

Effects of Conversation Partners’ Gender-Language Consistency on References to Emotion, Tentative Language, and Gender Salience

The study examined how a conversation partner’s gender and gender-language consistency influence communicators’ gender-based language (i.e., references to emotion and tentativeness) and gender identity salience. In an email exchange, an experiment manipulated an ostensible conversation partner’s gender and use of references to emotion in ways stereotypically consistent or inconsistent with the partner’s gender. The conversation partner’s gender and gender-language consistency affected communicators’ references to emotion in ways that generally confirmed hypotheses. Participants’ references to emotion were congruent with the conversation partner’s use of references to emotion regardless of participants’ own gender. Results pertaining to tentative language and gender salience demonstrated no substantive differences.

Voice Pitch Variation and Status Differentiation in Mixed-Sex Dyads: A Test of Expectation States Theory, Role Congruity Theory, and the Biosocial Model

Expectation states theory, role congruity theory, and the biosocial model, respectively, predict that perceptions of competence, agency and communality, and physical dominance explain the effects of nonverbal communication on social influence. This study contrasts these mechanisms by using voice pitch variation as a nonverbal signal in mixed-sex dyads. Thirty-seven pairs of male and female participants were recorded discussing a controversial topic under conditions where either their gender or a shared identity as college students was salient. Consistent with expectation states theory, men who varied their pitch more during discussion were perceived as more competent and influential by their female interlocutors, but only when gender was salient. In the same condition, male and female participants’ pitch variation negatively predicted their perceptions of their discussion partner’s influence, suggesting that nonverbal communication constitutes and reflects competition over status. Our findings favor expectation states theory over role congruity theory and the biosocial model.