Interpersonal exchange as a function of rewards and costs and situational factors: Expectancy confirmation-disconfirmation

Abstract

Sailors interacted, via an intercom system, with another man, presumably his partner (actually an experimenter confederate) over four 45-minute sessions. During this time the subjects confided personal information about themselves and the confederate responded to this information so as to create four experimental conditions of reinforcement: (1) Continuous Positive, (2) Later Positive, (3) Continuous Negative, and (4) Later Negative. Our hypotheses about the role of reward/cost effects on social penetration processes were generally confirmed, and agree with prior studies despite rather broad methodological differences. Those having favorable interpersonal experiences talked about more aspects of themselves (breadth), spoke longer when so doing (average time talked), and were generally more intimate (depth) than those in negative conditions. For breadth and average time measures, differences were primarily at intimate levels of exchange. Many differences were developmental in nature, occurring during later stages of interaction for depth and during earlier stages for average time. These findings were somewhat unique to specific reward/cost conditions; e.g., increased depth of disclosure was primarily attributable to Later Positive groups and the average time finding was largely evident in Continuous Positive groups. In general, the overall social penetration process was greatest for Continuous Positive and least for Continuous Negative conditions.