Toward a theoretical integration of context and competence inference research

The present analysis addresses the role of context in the process of inferring competence. First, a set of propositions regarding the nature of social contexts and communicative competence is developed. Second, an initial study designed to provide a partial test of these propositions is reported. Three hypotheses predicted that the outcome variables of Actor's self‐rating of competence, Actor's rating of Coactor's competence, and Actor's satisfaction with the conversation are a function of Actor's motivation to interact, knowledge of interaction, interaction skills, and contextual expectancy fulfillment. Results indicated that a large amount of variance (45–57%) in the three dependent variables is explained by the independent variables. Further, the context variables contribute a large proportion (19–44%) of the explained variance. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.