The influence of cultural similarity, type of relationship, and self‐monitoring on uncertainty reduction processes

Abstract

This study examined the scope of Berger and Calabrese's (1975) uncertainty reduction theory of initial interactions in developed relationships. Multivariate analysis of covariance was employed to examine the influence of cultural similarity (intracultural vs. intercultural relationships), type of relationship (acquaintance vs. friend), and self‐monitoring (covariate) on self‐disclosure, interrogation, deception detection, attraction, attitude similarity, length of relationship, shared communication networks, and attributional confidence. Results indicated that each of the independent variables influenced the set of dependent variables and, as predicted, there was a significant interaction between cultural similarity and type of relationship. The findings suggest that selected aspects of the theory can be extended to culturally similar and dissimilar acquaintances and friendships. The present data identify boundary conditions (i.e., some theorems are limited in scope to the initial interaction context) for selected aspects of the theory.

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