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Do say "thank you": verbal expressions of politeness and gratitude influence interpersonal perceptions

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journal contribution
posted on 2020-02-10, 17:18 authored by Nicole M Percival, Briony D Pulford
This study investigates how expressions of politeness and gratitude influence interpersonal perceptions of a job interviewee’s trustworthiness and personality. A pilot study disentangled politeness and gratitude ratings for phrases. Statements expressing politeness with high or low gratitude were selected and inserted into a job-interview transcript, with the female interviewee depicted as either the same age or 20 years older than the 136 participants. Results showed that, irrespective of the speaker’s perceived age, expressing politeness significantly improved the overall impression that the female interviewee made (likeable, friendly, employable and trustworthy) and did not reduce how assertive she appeared. Expressing higher gratitude reduced formality and increased friendliness ratings. We conclude that expressing politeness and gratitude impacts positively on perceptions of women, in line with Politeness Theory.

History

Citation

The Journal of General Psychology, DOI: 10.1080/00221309.2019.1690970

Author affiliation

Department of Neuroscience, Psychology and Behaviour, University of Leicester

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Published in

Journal of General Psychology

Publisher

Taylor & Francis (Routledge)

issn

0022-1309

eissn

1940-0888

Acceptance date

2019-11-03

Copyright date

2019

Publisher version

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00221309.2019.1690970

Notes

File deposited through CRIS 20/12/2019 TM

Spatial coverage

United States

Language

English