Types of emotional disclosures and request compliance between spouses

Abstract

The present study investigated variations in emotional disclosures when making requests of one's spouse. Unpleasant emotions are often thought of as “taboos,”; but this study demonstrated that, from the hearer's perspective, all unpleasant emotions are not equally negative. In fact, in comparison to messages that were devoid of emotions and other types of unpleasant emotions, disclosing vulnerabilities and hostilities toward persons other than the hearer often prompted hearers to respond with more positive messages and to report a more positive attitude toward request compliance, one's relationship with the requester, and oneself. Respondents, however, did not report any difference in the likelihood with which they would comply with requests on the basis of variations in emotional disclosures. The hypotheses and the results are discussed in terms of the face‐needs of communicators.

Notes

Susan B. Shimanoff is an Assistant Professor of Speech and Communication Studies, San Francisco State University. The author would like to thank Susan L. Wilcox for executing the computer programs necessary to complete the statistical analyses. This research was funded by a Faculty Research Award, University of California, Davis.