Satisfying communication and relationship labels: Intimacy and length of relationship as perceptual frames of naturalistic conversations

This study examines the role of relationship labels as perceptual frames of satisfying communication. Differentiating normative and outcome‐based approaches, it was hypothesized that different relationship labels would be associated with different types of satisfying communication. Naturalistic conversations were interrupted in two geographically distinct samples and interactants assessed relationship intimacy and length, and satisfying communication. Cross‐validated regressions indicated significant associations with satisfaction across samples for intimacy and within each sample for length.