RELATIONAL JUDGMENTS IN AN INFLUENCE CONTEXT

We contend that communication episodes tend to focus interactants' att ention on one or the other of two relational judgments: dominance or a ffiliation. Further, when one judgment is relatively more salient, ind ividuals will use the salient judgment as the basis for inferring othe r aspects of the relationship. To test that notion, a judgment study w as conducted in which participants viewed a set of influence messages that varied in degree of dominance and explicitness. The influence con text was chosen because it naturally highlighted dominance. After view ing the messages, participants provided ratings of dominance, explicit ness, and two aspects of affiliation: liking and involvement. When the resulting data were submitted to a structural equation analysis, it w as found that judgments of liking depended on judgments of explicitnes s and dominance. Judgments of involvement depended on judgments of lik ing and dominance. Both findings support the claim that one relational judgment may provide the basis for another.