Communicating information in conversations: A cross-cultural comparison

The purpose of this study was to compare the amount of information sent by the speaker, received and retrieved by the listener. in inter- and intra-cu ltural conversations. Three hypotheses were tested (1) in their conversatio ns, inter-cultural interactants would communicate significantly less inform ation than intra-cultural interactants with other variables held constant, (2) the two inter-cultural conditions would not be different from each othe r. in terms of the amount of information communicated, and the same would b e true with the two intra-cultural conditions, and (3) in their conversatio ns, the speakers in inter-cultural conditions would send the same amount of information as speakers in inter-cultural conditions given that all speake rs would pass a test on the materials they were going to present. Participa nts were 40 Canadian and 40 Chinese university students, and they were rand omly assigned to one of the four, experimental conditions. Each dyad engage d in two medical conversations, which were videotaped upon the consent of t he participants. The nature of the conversations resembled physician-patien t face-to-face interactions. Results fi om written tests immediately follow ing the conversations provided strong support for Hypothesis I and 2, and r esults from viewing the videotapes provided partial support for Hypothesis 3. In relation to the amount of information sent by the speakers, listeners in inter- and intra-cultural conditions retrieved only 50% and 75% of the information respectively. Based on the findings, one may argue that inter-c ultural communication differs significantly from intra-cultural communicati on in the amount of information communicated in situations where the second -language speaker has sufficient language ability to participate bl the con versation, thus indicating that language ability alone does not guarantee e ffective inter-cultural communication. The findings of this study have impo rtant implications for inter-cultural communication training and health com munication. What is more, they further our understanding of the nature of h uman communication in that what is said by the speaker. is not always recei ved, comprehended, or retrieved correctly by the listener. This is true eve n bt intra-cultural interactions, although the information loss is not as s evere as in inter-cultural interactions (25% versus 50%). Therefore, one ma y conclude that one cannot not miscommunicate in a discursive situation. (C ) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.