Looking Out for Number One: Euphemism and Face

Communicators have two possible motives for referring to a distasteful topic euphemistically: to minimize threat to the addressee's face and to minimize threat to their own. The experiment reported here investigated the influence of these interrelated but distinct face motives on euphemism use. Participants described a series of photographs, one of which depicted a distasteful stimulus (e.g., dog urine), in electronic messages they sent to a fictitious remotely located recipient. Some participants were led to believe they would meet the recipient at the experiment's conclusion, whereas others believed they would not meet and therefore remain anonymous to the recipient. Euphemisms were used to describe the distasteful stimuli more frequently among participants who believed their identities would be disclosed to the recipient. These results suggest that communicators are inclined to use euphemisms more for self-presentational purposes than out of concern for their addressees' sensibilities.