Bad news transmission as a function of the definitiveness of consequences and the relationship between communicator and recipient

There is ample evidence suggesting (e.g,, A. Tesser & S. Rosen, 1975) that people are reluctant to transmit bad news, Research on rumors, on the other hand, suggests that people sometimes are less reluctant to transmit bad ne ws. It is argued that differences between the 2 lines of research include t he definitiveness of the consequences of the news and the relationship betw een communicator and recipient, The influence of these 2 factors on news tr ansmission was investigated in 3 experiments. Results showed that bad news with indefinite consequences was transmitted more often than bad news with definite consequences and that both kinds of bad news were transmitted more often if the recipient was a friend rather than a stranger, Differences in feelings of moral responsibility to transmit the news largely accounted fo r both effects. The 2 factors did not affect the likelihood of good news tr ansmission.