Communication and miscommunication: The role of egocentric processes

Communication is typically considered to be guided by principles of cooperation, requiring the consideration of the communication partner's mental states for its success. Miscommunication, in turn, is considered a product of noise and random error. I argue that communication proceeds in a relatively egocentric manner, with addressees routinely interpreting what speakers say from their own perspective, and speakers disambiguating their utterances with little consideration to the mental states of their addressees. Speakers also tend to overestimate how effective they are, believing that their message is understood more often than it really is. Together, these findings suggest a systematic cause for miscommunication.