Willingness to communicate: Differing cultural perspectives

Abstract

The general tendency to approach or avoid communication has been recognized as an important individual difference among people in a single culture for several decades. Recent research in Australia, Micronesia, Puerto Rico, Sweden, and the United States suggests large differences exist in such tendencies between people in different cultures as well as within a given culture. This research suggests such “individual” tendencies may be developed to very different degrees in dissimilar cultures. The view is taken that an understanding of the cultural impact on individual differences should be a vital component in the study of intercultural communication. Examples are drawn from research on general willingness to communicate, introversion, communication apprehension, and self‐perceived communication competence in several countries around the world.