Department of Psychology, University of Maryland-College Park.
Department of Psychology, University of New Hampshire.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2014 Jan;106(1):37-57. doi: 10.1037/a0034161. Epub 2013 Aug 12.
Six studies demonstrate that perceivers' desire to bond with targets motivates perceivers to misconstrue their own self-disclosure in ways that maintain perceivers' security in targets' care and commitment. Perceivers who strongly valued relationships with targets reported high levels of global self-disclosure, consistent with many findings suggesting salutary effects of disclosure. However, these same perceivers reported low self-disclosure of needs and desires in hypothetical (Study 1) and actual (Study 2) situations characterized by targets' unresponsive behavior. Similarly, in daily report (Study 3) and behavioral observation (Study 4) studies, perceivers who valued relationships with targets perceived high levels of self-disclosure when targets were responsive, but they perceived low self-disclosure when targets were unresponsive, and these perceptions seemed partly illusory. In turn, these perceptions of low self-disclosure in situations characterized by partners' unresponsive behavior predicted decreased perceptions of diagnosticity of targets' behavior (Studies 1-3) and buffered the negative affective and interpersonal effects of unresponsive behavior (Study 4). Experimental manipulations (Studies 5 and 6) demonstrated the motivational nature of perceived self-disclosure. Collectively, the results suggest that a desire to bond with targets motivates perceivers to downplay the diagnosticity of targets' unresponsive behavior through diminishing their self-disclosure, in turn preserving perceivers' trust in targets' care and commitment.
六项研究表明，知觉者与目标建立联系的愿望促使知觉者错误地理解自己的自我表露，从而维持知觉者对目标关怀和承诺的安全感。强烈重视与目标关系的知觉者报告了高水平的整体自我表露，这与许多表明披露有益效果的发现一致。然而，这些相同的知觉者在假设（研究 1）和实际（研究 2）情况下报告了需求和欲望的自我表露较低，这些情况的特点是目标的反应迟钝。同样，在日常报告（研究 3）和行为观察（研究 4）研究中，当目标反应灵敏时，重视与目标关系的知觉者会感知到高水平的自我表露，但当目标反应迟钝时，他们会感知到自我表露较低，而这些感知似乎部分是虚幻的。反过来，这些对伴侣反应迟钝的情况下自我表露较低的感知预测了目标行为的诊断性降低（研究 1-3），并缓冲了反应迟钝行为的负面情感和人际影响（研究 4）。实验操作（研究 5 和 6）证明了感知自我表露的动机性质。总的来说，研究结果表明，与目标建立联系的愿望促使知觉者通过减少自我表露来淡化目标反应迟钝行为的诊断性，从而维持知觉者对目标关怀和承诺的信任。
