The effect of self-construals on conversational indirectness

Individuals are different in terms of how they express what they mean and interpret others' messages. This study looks at an individual's preference for expressing meaning directly or indirectly, along with their tendency to look for indirect meanings in others' messages. Holtgraves (J. Pers. Soc, Psychol. 73 (1997) 624) proposes the concept of "conversational indirectness" which consists of two dimensions: interpretation and production of indirect meaning. This study expanded on previous studies of indirectness by using Holtgraves' Conversational Indirectness Scale to focus on the effect of self-construals on two dimensions of conversational indirectness. A total of 268 students at the University of Hawaii at Manoa participated in this study. The results indicated that both dimensions of conversational indirectness were positively associated with interdependent self-construal, and the dimension of production was negatively associated with independent self-construal. The implications of the results of the hypotheses and communication practice are discussed. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd.