Contextual influences on the pursuit of secondary goals in request messages

Abstract

When making requests, speakers often pursue not only an influence goal but a secondary goal such as implying that they do not wish to impose. This research asked whether or not the effects of situation features on the importance of secondary goals depend on the kind of request being made. The effects of six features and five interactions on the importance of five secondary goals were observed in four types of requests (borrow, share activity, stop annoyance, request permission). Findings indicate that the effect of situation features on the importance of secondary goals often depends on request type. The implications for cognitive theories of message production, individual differences in adaptive ability, and politeness theory (Brown and Levinson, 1987) are considered.