Cuelessness and the content and style of conversation

Abstract

Recent research has suggested that, when visual and other social cues are limited in social encounters, a number of consequences follow. The more cueless the setting, the more task oriented and depersonalized the content of the discussion, the less spontaneous the style of speech and, in negotiations, the more likely the side with the stronger case to prevail. The present experiment was designed to re‐examine the effects of cuelessness by comparing three conditions: face‐to‐face, in which subjects sat opposite each other across a table without restriction; wooden screen, in which a small wooden screen was placed between them so that visual communication was precluded; and audio, in which they conversed from separate rooms over a microphone‐headphone intercom so that they were physically as well as visually separated. It was found that (a) while cuelessness did not affect content, it did reduce spontaneity of style; (b) subjects failed to adapt to the constraints of cuelessness over time; and (c) the more task oriented and depersonalized the content of the discussions, the less spontaneous the style. The theoretical and empirical implications of the findings for our cuelessness model are discussed.