Mixed Messages: The Multiple Audience Problem and Strategic Communication

Examination of how senders communicate hidden messages to an audience while simultaneously conveying a credible but misleading message to a second audience showed that regardless of the audience or audiences for which the hidden messages were intended, senders successfully communicated their hidden messages.

Abstract

We examined how senders communicate hidden messages to an audience while simultaneously conveying a credible but misleading message to a second audience. Senders made two sets of videotapes communicating the locations of secret meetings and expressing preferences between pairs of objects. We then showed these sets of videotapes, each consisting of a truthful, a misleading, and two hidden message communications intended for different sets of audiences, to four observer audiences: the other senders, a group of the senders' friends, a group of adult strangers, and a group of the senders' parents. Results showed that regardless of the audience or audiences for which the hidden messages were intended, senders successfully communicated their hidden messages to the intended audiences; the hidden messages went undetected by the unintended audiences. Specifically, senders used various encryption systems (hand signals and teenage argot) to communicate their messages. We discuss these findings in terms of strategic communication processes.