Expectancy Violations Theory in Communication
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Presentation Transcript
Expectancy Violations Theory Judee Burgoon
Nutshell Description • Individuals develop expectations of other people’s behavior • Expectations can be fulfilled (normative, expected communication behaviors) or violated • EVT is interested in what happens when expectancies are violated • Variables of interest: attitude (liking, satisfaction), behavior (compliance)
Key Ideas • An expectancy is something that is predicted to occur. • Expectancies are based on context/cultural norms, relationship factors, and communicator characteristics • All cultures have a structure of expected communication behaviors, but the content can differ significantly
Communicators and expectancy violations both have reward valence • Positive valence: Good • Negative valence: Bad
Communicator reward valence: sum of the positive and negative attributes that the person brings to the encounter plus the potential she/he has to reward or punish in the future • Spouse, boss, bratty kid brother, physician, etc.
Violation valence: perceived value of a breach of expectations • Some violations are clearly negative or positive (although dependent on context and culture!); first date: flowers/candy versus being late • Some violations are equivocal; touch
Guidelines • When a behavior has “socially recognized” and agreed upon meaning: • If valence is negative, do less than expected • If valence is positive, do more than expected • If behavior is ambiguous, communicator valence is particularly important