Effect of situational features on the likelihood of addressing face needs in requests

Abstract

This study asks whether the effort made to perform facework in requests can be predicted by the perceptual dimensions of influence situations identified in past research and/or by the speaker's liking for the hearer. Subjects recalled requests they had made and indicated their concerns with protecting negative face needs, positive face needs, and their own identity needs. A stepwise regression showed intimacy, speaker dominance, rights and resistance to be inversely related to negative facework, while personal benefits and liking for the hearer were both positive predictors. Speakers’ concerns over their identity were positively related to personal benefits and negatively related to resistance. Subjects made a greater effort to address the hearer's positive face needs only if they liked the hearer more.