COALITION AND COMMUNICATION

Based on the premises that communication behavior varies as a function of social relationships and that coalitions in triads are a significant form of social structure, this study explored forms of communication behavior related to processes of coalition formation and termination. As expected, communication accessibility was greater within the coalition than between the excluded person and members of the coalition, but communication content differed only in the relative frequency of expressions of negative sentiment. Accessibility did not differ significantly between coalescing partners prior to, during, and subsequent to their coalition, but there were significantly more “pressure” statements in the negotiations prior to coalition. The utility of a three-person iterated matrix game was demonstrated for studies of communication and coalition, and the implications of the choice of a unit of analysis for the study of communication were discussed.