It's Not Just Your Goal, But Also Who You Know

How the Cognitive Associations Among Goals and Relationships Influence Goal Detection in Social Interaction

Bibliographic Data

ID2270104
AuthorsN A Palomares (0000-0002-7754-6357, University of California, Davis, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume35
Issue4
Pages534-560
Publication date2009-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHuman Communication Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0360-3989 • E-ISSN: 1468-2958
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/j.1468-2958.2009.01362.x
OpenAlexW2145884447
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited52

An experiment tested a theoretical framework for goal detection in dyadic interactions of close friends and unacquainted strangers wherein one conversationalist pursued a goal unbeknownst to a detector. The extent to which pursuers' conversation goal was cognitively associated with the dyad's relational type was manipulated. As hypothesized, pursuers' efficiency was significantly positively correlated to detectors' inference accuracy when the pursuer's goal was weakly linked to the relational type (e.g., avoid-awkwardness goal in close-friend dyads), whereas efficiency–accuracy correlations were not significant when the pursuer's goal was strongly linked to the relational type (e.g., avoid-awkwardness in unacquainted dyads). Results for detectors' inference certainty provided weak support for the prediction. Alternative accounts (e.g., personalism or relational knowledge) were relatively ineffective

Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Conversation · Developmental psychology · Dyad · Goal Orientation · Inference · Pursuer · Social relation · Communication · Computer Science · Conflict Management and Negotiation · Psychology · Psychology of Social Influence · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology · Artificial Intelligence