Suspicious Receivers’ Goals and Behaviors 8
behaviors (e.g., talking over the issue, arguing over the issue, talking around the issue, avoiding
the issue, and avoiding the person) for the reduction of uncertainty (Planalp, Rutherford, &
Honeycutt, 1988). Thus, following research question is presented:
RQ1: To which level does a suspicious receiver experience message uncertainty, partner
uncertainty, and relationship uncertainty?
Suspicion and Relationship Protection
How an individual strategically selects one’s response may rely on other interaction
goals as well. It is this multiplicity of goals which shapes a person’s actual behavior (i.e.,
suspicion display in particular). Berger and Kellermann (1983) found that people often use self-
disclosure or comforting behaviors, rather than direct questioning, to bring out information from
their conversational partners. It is suggested that a trade-off between efficiency and social
appropriateness occurs in an attempt to gather information, which leads people to employ less
efficient but more socially appropriate strategies (Berger & Kellermann, 1983).
Such compromising behaviors were found in suspicious receivers’ behaviors as well.
Suspicious receivers encoded less suspicious probes (Buller et al., 1991), displayed more kinesic
pleasantness and immediacy (Burgoon et al., 1995), and smiled longer while showing increased
dominance and global involvement (Burgoon et al., 1996). It can be suggested that these
behaviors, which are customarily associated with positive affect, allow the suspicious receiver to
attain information from the sender, while displaying one’s suspicion less overtly. The trade-off
has occurred here by not directly questioning the partner’s duplicity, which could be more
efficient way to cope with one’s suspicion, but concealing one’s suspicion and further engaging
in the interaction. That is, suspicious receivers behaved in a less obtrusive way of information
gathering by compromising efficiency with social appropriateness.
To shape one’s behavior in a socially appropriate manner is related with the person’s
Convention