Communicating information in conversations: a cross-cultural comparison

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the amount of information sent by the speaker, received and retrieved by the listener in inter- and intra-cultural conversations. Three hypotheses were tested: (1) in their conversations, inter-cultural interactants would communicate significantly less information than intra-cultural interactants with other variables held constant, (2) the two inter-cultural conditions would not be different from each other in terms of the amount of information communicated, and the same would be true with the two intra-cultural conditions, and (3) in their conversations, the speakers in inter-cultural conditions would send the same amount of information as speakers in intra-cultural conditions given that all speakers would pass a test on the materials they were going to present. Participants were 40 Canadian and 40 Chinese university students, and they were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental conditions. Each dyad engaged in two medical conversations, which were videotaped upon the consent of the participants. The nature of the conversations resembled physician-patient face-to-face interactions. Results from written tests immediately following the conversations provided strong support for Hypothesis 1 and 2, and results from viewing the videotapes provided partial support for Hypothesis 3. In relation to the amount of information sent by the speakers, listeners in inter- and intra-cultural conditions retrieved only 50% and 75% of the information respectively. Based on the findings, one may argue that inter-cultural communication differs significantly from intra-cultural communication in the amount of information communicated in situations where the second-language speaker has sufficient language ability to participate in the conversation, thus indicating that language ability alone does not guarantee effective inter-cultural communication. The findings of this study have important implications for inter-cultural communication training and health communication. What is more, they further our understanding of the nature of human communication in that what is said by the speaker is not always received, comprehended, or retrieved correctly by the listener. This is true even in intra-cultural interactions, although the information loss is not as severe as in inter-cultural interactions (25% versus 50%). Therefore, one may conclude that one cannot not miscommunicate in a discursive situation.