When Communication Fails: Examining How, Why, and Where Communication Goes Wrong

成功的沟通对于所有的人际交往都是至关重要的，从在工作场所给出指令到发展和维持关系。但沟通并不总是成功的。有时人们会被误解，他们的本意被误解了，或者完全被误解了。误解往往会产生严重的后果，并可能导致错误和有害的决定。以往关于错误沟通的研究往往集中在特定类型的错误沟通上，比如不同性别或文化的人之间的错误沟通。这个项目的目标是开发一个更普遍的错误沟通的理论模型。其目的是为了更清楚地理解交际误解所涉及的一般原则。这个项目的一个特别焦点是在数字环境中发生的沟通错误，如短信和电子邮件。这项研究将有助于揭示一般原则，增进对沟通失误的基本理解，并找出导致沟通失误的因素。该项目整合了社会心理学、语言学和传播学的见解，以开发和测试数字交流(文本、电子邮件等)背景下的交流误解模型。一个通用的框架被定义为发送者的交际意图没有被接收者正确识别的一种情况。该模型的一个重要方面是关注面子管理的人际过程(一个人的公共身份)。这项研究考虑了文化、个体差异和表情符号等因素如何影响面孔管理的显着性，以及这些因素如何结合起来预测信息特征和沟通成功。11个实验解决了关于沟通不畅的关键问题。这项研究将展示特定言语行为和情感的语言实现如何随着公众身份受到威胁(面子威胁)而发生变化，以及不同意图之间的关系如何影响交际错误。它还将考虑表情符号在信息产生和意图识别中的作用，以及这些过程如何受到沟通方式和思维能力的文化和个人差异的影响。成功的沟通对几乎所有的人际交往都至关重要。随着数字通信的快速发展，了解通信如何、为什么以及哪里出了问题变得越来越重要。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Successful communication is critical for all human interaction, from giving instructions in the workplace to developing and maintaining relationships. But communication is not always successful. Sometimes people are misunderstood, their intended meaning is taken the wrong way, or it is missed entirely. Misunderstandings often have serious consequences and can lead to faulty and harmful decisions. Past research on miscommunication has tended to focus on specific types of miscommunication, such as that between people of different genders or cultures. The goal of this project is to develop a more general theoretical model of miscommunication. The aim is to gain a clearer understanding of the general principles involved in communicative misunderstanding. A special focus of this project is miscommunication that occurs in digital contexts, such as texting and email. The research will help to uncover general principles, increase basic understanding of miscommunication, and identify the factors that contribute to it. This project integrates insights from social psychology, linguistics and communications to develop and test a model of communicative misunderstandings in the context of digital communication (texts, email, etc.). A general framework is developed in which miscommunication is defined as an instance of a sender's communicative intent not being correctly recognized by the recipient. An important facet of the model is a focus on the interpersonal process of face management (a person's public identity). The research considers how factors such as culture, individual differences, and emoji influence the salience of face management, and how these combine to predict message characteristics and communicative success. Eleven experiments address critical questions about miscommunication. The research will show how the linguistic realization of specific speech acts and emotions vary as a function of threats to public identity (face-threat), and how the relationship between different intentions can influence communication errors. It will also consider the role of emoji in message production and intention recognition, and how these processes are moderated by cultural and individual differences in communication style and mentalizing capacities. Successful communication is critical to almost all human interactions. With the rapid growth of digital communication it is increasingly important to understand how, why, and where communication goes wrong.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.