ANXIETY AROUSING MESSAGES AND EGO-INVOLVEMENT AS DETERMINANTS OF COMMUNICATIVE PREDISPOSITIONS

A theoretically integrated rationale was generated combining affiliation, ego-involvement, and balance-restoring responses and research was conducted testing hypotheses: (1) slightly involved subjects will demonstrate a greater desire to communicate upon receipt of an anxiety-arousing discrepant message than highly involved subjects; and (2) slightly involved subjects will demonstrate a greater desire to communicate upon receipt of a nonanxiety-arousing discrepant message than highly involved subjects. Results confirmed both hypotheses and the findings were discussed in terms of a proposed theoretic framework identifying the effects of message impact on communicative predispositions.