I understand you feel that way, but I feel this way: The benefits of I-language and communicating perspective during conflict

Authors

Shane L. Rogers, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Jill Howieson
Casey Neame, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Title

PeerJ

Publisher

PeerJ Inc.

School

School of Arts and Humanities

RAS ID

26780

Comments

Rogers, S. L., Howieson, J., & Neame, C. (2018). I understand you feel that way, but I feel this way: The benefits of I-language and communicating perspective during conflict. PeerJ, 2018(5). Available here

Abstract

Using hypothetical scenarios, we provided participants with potential opening statements to a conflict discussion that varied on I/you language and communicated perspective. Participants rated the likelihood that the recipient of the statement would react in a defensive manner. Using I-language and communicating perspective were both found to reduce perceptions of hostility. Statements that communicated both self- and other-perspective using I-language (e.g. ‘I understand why you might feel that way, but I feel this way, so I think the situation is unfair’) were rated as the best strategy to open a conflict discussion. Simple acts of initial language use can reduce the chances that conflict discussion will descend into a downward spiral of hostility.

DOI

10.7717/peerj.4831

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.