Passivity as Posture in Social Interaction

Actors tend to present a credible, likeable, and socially positive self during interaction. While we know a lot about how actors convey the self acquisitively, there are prominent yet underexplored instances where actors refrain from taking the center stage and act reservedly to support others' self‐presentation. We call this posture “passivity,” a situational practice that usually involves both interactional (i.e., maintaining an ongoing encounter) and relational (i.e., maintaining a long‐term relationship) concerns. Based on cross‐contextual examples from existing literature, we provide a general framework illustrating the conditions, nature, and mechanisms of passivity to show why it matters in social interaction.