Effects of Instrumental Success and Failure on Perceptions of Underaccommodative Messages and Sources

Guided by communication accommodation theory, this study examined how the success or failure of accomplishing an instrumental goal affects people’s perceptions of objectively underaccommodative messages and corresponding sources. Participants (N = 141) completed two map-based tasks that required them to follow directions that contained insufficient information (i.e., were underaccommodative). Participants received feedback about their accuracy in completing the task. Consistent with predictions, successful participants perceived the directions as more accommodative and clear, and inferred more positive motives and higher levels of perspective-taking by the direction-giver (compared to unsuccessful participants). These results identify instrumental success/failure as a factor that leads people to interpret the same communication adjustments differently, and that contributes to perceptions of communication adjustments as problematic.