Affinity-Testing in Initial Interactions

Previous research has suggested that, during first encounters, conversation performs an uncertainty reducing function and persons' selections of conversational strategy require `trade-offs' between efficiency and social appropriateness. Moreover, uncertainty reduction is posited to induce increased liking for a target. However, relationship development is contingent upon mutual liking so that initial interactants may commonly seek out information concerning others' affective judgments. This analysis was designed to (1) demonstrate that previously explicated information-seeking behaviours (e.g., inter-rogation, disclosure) are likely to provide limited access to those judgments; (2) define the ways in which initial interactants test targets' affinity; and (3) determine the extent to which these tests involve compromise between efficiency and social appropriateness.