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ABSTRACT
Being misunderstood as a person occurs when an interaction partner communicates in a way that reveals a different view of one’s identity than that held by the individual. Results of a study (n = 282) revealed that both personal and social identities are misunderstood, with personality being misunderstood most frequently. Misunderstandings about religious beliefs are especially serious and negative. Reappraisal has a small effect on communication satisfaction while partner’s perspective-taking has a more robust effect on communication satisfaction and emotion than the self’s perspective-taking. As hypothesized, relational satisfaction was predicted by perspective-taking (especially the partner’s), communication satisfaction, and the seriousness of the misunderstanding. A model of being misunderstood as a person is proposed.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. In order to avoid gender binaries as well as sexist language, the paper uses “they,” “them” and “their” rather than singular pronouns (e.g., her or his). This usage is consistent with common usage: “Someone is at the door.” “What do they want?”
2. Examination of the descriptions revealed that some identities were checked that were not obvious in the descriptions of the misunderstandings. Using the checklist to measure this variable (rather than a content analysis of the descriptions) prioritized the participants’ recall over the researcher’s coding.