Expectancy Violations in Relationships with Friends and Media Figures

Expectancy violations can have damaging effects in social relationships, but their comparative effects on relationships with media figures has not been explored. A questionnaire was given to 125 undergraduates, measuring anticipated reductions in closeness to friends and media figures as a result of three expectancy violations: moral, trust, and social. For both relationships, trust and social violations resulted in greater reductions in closeness than moral violations. Compared to violations committed by other types of media figures, respondents expected greater reductions in closeness for major violations committed by athletes and social violations committed by TV hosts. Women anticipated greater reductions in closeness than men. These findings shed light on how mediated relationships evolve and how they intersect with interpersonal relationships.