Effect of Primary Goal on Secondary Goal Importance and Message Plan Acceptability

Prior to speaking, a person may anticipate outcomes of a message. Such outcomes often pertain to the relevance of the message to secondary goals such as impression management or relationship maintenance. Based on expected outcomes, a decision is made to say, to edit, or to withhold a message. This study asks whether anticipating that a message would conflict with a secondary goal affects perceived message acceptability differently when different primary goals are pursued (e.g., comforting, providing feedback). Eight primary goals and four secondary goals were investigated. Findings show that secondary goal importance and the extent to which expected conflict with a secondary goal reduces message acceptability varies across primary goals.