Characteristics and Consequences of Interpersonal Complaints Associated with Perceived Face Threat

Abstract

The current study proposes that recipients' aversive reactions to complaints are a function of perceived face threat. One hundred and ninety-nine college students completed a survey asking them to describe in detail a recent complaint they had received from a friend or romantic partner, and to describe their response to that complaint. Respondents completed measures designed to assess their reactions to the complaint, including perceived face threat, negative affect, fairness, and damage to the relationship. As predicted, dispositional complaints were perceived to be more face threatening than nondispositional complaints, and complaints delivered in public were more face threatening than complaints delivered in private. Both positive and negative face threat were associated with the complaint recipient's anger/hurt and defensiveness. Perceptions of positive face threat also were associated with perceptions of less fairness and greater perceived damage to the relationship, whereas perceived threat to negative face predicted the recipient's feelings of embarrassment and anxiety/depression. The findings indicate that the face-threatening nature of complaints is associated with adverse relational consequences. Perceived threats to positive face, which tend to convey relational devaluation, were more strongly associated with relational damage than were threats to negative face.