Explaining the Relationships among Supportive Message Quality, Evaluations, and Outcomes: A Dual-Process Approach

Research on supportive communication has been concerned with two primary classes of dependent variables. Message evaluations refer to judgments about the supportive message and/or the sender of that message, and message outcomes refer to cognitive, affective, and behavioral effects of messages. Most studies have utilized variables from one or the other class with less attention paid to the association between evaluations and outcomes. Indeed, there is a common assumption that message evaluations are a valid proxy for other outcomes of interest. This assumption is tested empirically in this article. Results from two studies show that (1) evaluations of messages mediate the effect of message quality on outcomes and (2) degree of message scrutiny moderates this mediating effect by altering the degree to which message quality influences evaluations. We use a dual-process theory of supportive message outcomes as the framework for interpreting supportive message effects and for examining the link between message evaluations and outcomes. Keywords: Comforting MessagesDual-Process TheoryEmotional SupportSocial Support Acknowledgments This article is published posthumously in Brant Burleson's name, who passed away in December 2010. Additional informationNotes on contributorsGraham D. Bodie Graham D. Bodie (PhD, Purdue University, 2008) is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at The Louisiana State University Brant R. Burleson Brant R. Burleson (PhD, University of Illinois, 1982) was Professor in the Department of Communication at Purdue University Susanne M. Jones Susanne M. Jones (PhD, Arizona State University, 2000) is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at University of Minnesota, Twin Cities