Comforting conversations: The effects of strategy type on evaluations of messages and message producers

Abstract

Two studies assessing outcomes associated with the use of comforting strategies are reported. Study 1 examined how a message variable, individual‐difference variables, and contextual variables influenced evaluations of both comforting messages and the sources of these messages. Participants (N = 410) read one of eighteen different fictional conversations in which one person attempted to comfort a friend who was experiencing emotional distress. Evaluations of both messages and message sources were found to differ significantly as a function of the sophistication of the strategies employed by the source. In addition, female sources were more positively evaluated than male sources. Study 2 found that evaluations of comforting messages varied as a direct, linear function of message sophistication.