Intercultural and intrapersonal processes and factors of misunderstanding: Implications for multicultural training

Abstract

Success or failure of intercultural communication depends on the extent to which each person understands the subjective culture of the other. The nonverbal dimension of communication dominates in many intercultural situations. While strange gestures create a state of non understanding, external kinetic similarity of gestures, found frequently throughout different cultures, leads to a high degree of mis understanding. Following a presentation of empirical findings on intercultural misunderstanding, the paper analyzes several functions and processes in cases of correct decoding, conscious nonunderstanding, and unconscious misunderstanding according to theories of cognitive dissonance and tension reduction. It develops the concept of interpretation-certainty and its interpersonal functions in the communication process. A model of “Communication Quality” is presented. In contrast to the positive contribution of high certainty with regard to correct understanding, its effect on communication fluency in the case of mis understanding is highly negative. In order to raise communication quality, a training activity, aimed at certainty-reduction, was developed and tested. The comparison of certainty level resulted in highly significant differences between training and control groups as well as for the training group itself for pretest and posttest comparisons. The proposed training strategy contributes directly to a reduction of low “communication quality”. It is culture-general and may be effective for as many types of individuals in the intercultural encounter. Moreover, it also contributes to the development of cultural sensitivity and respect for cultural diversity.