“I’m beginning to find this conversation aversive, and I’m not sure why. I propose we hold off until I’ve figured that out.”
[I do not endorse that particular conversation move. Nor do I particularly discourage it, between Tell culture users.]
I observe that this objection to the exit strategy the problem is that ‘Tell culture’ is not being used by the receiving party. The receiving party is interpreting the information through the filter of some variety of non-Tell culture and essentially reading a different message than the one sent. This is a real problem but it is a real problem relating to speaking a language different to the audience, not a problem that applies to the communication via the language itself.
Speaking ‘Tell Culture’ phrases to someone who is not both familiar with the communication style and happy to use it should not be expected to work well.
There are plenty of times when I agree a policy of frankness can be useful, but one of the risks of such a policy is that it can become an excuse to abdicate responsibility for your effect on other people.
The complimentary risk here is that your opposing policy can become (or inherently is) an excuse to abdicate responsibility for ones own thoughts and behaviour onto someone else. Neither are particularly healthy habits.
If you tell me that you’re having an aversive reaction to our conversation, but can’t tell me why, it’s going to stress me out, and I’m going to feel compelled to go back over our conversation to see if I can figure out what I did to cause that reaction in you.
Note that the speakers words explicitly claim responsibility and even go so far as to propose that even if the other person can figure the stuff out the speaker still has to figure it out for herself before the condition is met. It also contains no more (in fact, almost certainly much less) information than is contained in the uncontrollable communication via facial expressions, voice tone and body language while ending the conversation. The difference is there isn’t level of social ‘role play’ where people pretend that information has not been communicated and where if that information is formally acknowledged to be communicated it is the equivalent to shouting or using all-caps.
That’s a non-negligible burden to dump on someone.
Or if looking at from the perspective of assigning responsibility to the active party that’s a non-negligible burden that, someone walked up and forcibly took as there own because it wasn’t kept hidden. The speaker actually set up boundaries around the aversion-experience-analysis territory that imply that would be somewhat presumptive (or irrelevant) if the listener assumed responsibility for the analysis. The listener’s problem is that she has incompatible ’Guess culture boundaries.
If, instead, you found an excuse to leave the conversation gracefully (no need for annoyed body language), you can reflect on the conversation later and decide if there is anything in particular I did to cause your aversive reaction.
Being able to reliably suppress natural body language is a powerful (and rare) skill and makes all sorts of social tasks easier. Of course even in the limit of perfect emotional emulation and poise any listener familiar with your skill an propensity to hide aversion is, on average, left with exactly the same p(I did something that caused an aversive reaction) as they would with the transparent person. The probability mass is simply shifted away from the correct outcome to the false ones. ie. You have to spend effort guessing whether as well as what.
Or maybe you decide you were just anxious about something unrelated. Overall, chances are good that you can save me a lot of stress and self-consciousness by dealing with your emotions yourself as a first pass,
(I do actually agree entirely. There is no way I’m going to go about sharing half-baked emotion revelations. That gives people the impression that can or should interfere with my internal decision making structures that my emotions are part of. I’ll tell people things when it is useful for me and I know what I want.)
and making them my problem only if (upon reflection) you decide that it would be helpful to do so.
Again, as a Tell culture communication (to an appropriate audience) this isn’t making it their problem. And this isn’t just referring to ‘ideal Tell Culturites in a vacuum’. In my experience more as a recipient of that kind of statement than a speaker it really doesn’t provoke stressful rumination or analysis of fault. It is a whole heap more relaxing than the inevitable underlying friction that aversive feelings produce.
Conclusion: The moral here is that making (incompatible) Tell Culture revelations to people living in a Guess Culture mindset can be tactless, selfish, ineffective and frustrating to both parties.
[I do not endorse that particular conversation move. Nor do I particularly discourage it, between Tell culture users.]
I observe that this objection to the exit strategy the problem is that ‘Tell culture’ is not being used by the receiving party. The receiving party is interpreting the information through the filter of some variety of non-Tell culture and essentially reading a different message than the one sent. This is a real problem but it is a real problem relating to speaking a language different to the audience, not a problem that applies to the communication via the language itself.
Speaking ‘Tell Culture’ phrases to someone who is not both familiar with the communication style and happy to use it should not be expected to work well.
The complimentary risk here is that your opposing policy can become (or inherently is) an excuse to abdicate responsibility for ones own thoughts and behaviour onto someone else. Neither are particularly healthy habits.
Note that the speakers words explicitly claim responsibility and even go so far as to propose that even if the other person can figure the stuff out the speaker still has to figure it out for herself before the condition is met. It also contains no more (in fact, almost certainly much less) information than is contained in the uncontrollable communication via facial expressions, voice tone and body language while ending the conversation. The difference is there isn’t level of social ‘role play’ where people pretend that information has not been communicated and where if that information is formally acknowledged to be communicated it is the equivalent to shouting or using all-caps.
Or if looking at from the perspective of assigning responsibility to the active party that’s a non-negligible burden that, someone walked up and forcibly took as there own because it wasn’t kept hidden. The speaker actually set up boundaries around the aversion-experience-analysis territory that imply that would be somewhat presumptive (or irrelevant) if the listener assumed responsibility for the analysis. The listener’s problem is that she has incompatible ’Guess culture boundaries.
Being able to reliably suppress natural body language is a powerful (and rare) skill and makes all sorts of social tasks easier. Of course even in the limit of perfect emotional emulation and poise any listener familiar with your skill an propensity to hide aversion is, on average, left with exactly the same p(I did something that caused an aversive reaction) as they would with the transparent person. The probability mass is simply shifted away from the correct outcome to the false ones. ie. You have to spend effort guessing whether as well as what.
(I do actually agree entirely. There is no way I’m going to go about sharing half-baked emotion revelations. That gives people the impression that can or should interfere with my internal decision making structures that my emotions are part of. I’ll tell people things when it is useful for me and I know what I want.)
Again, as a Tell culture communication (to an appropriate audience) this isn’t making it their problem. And this isn’t just referring to ‘ideal Tell Culturites in a vacuum’. In my experience more as a recipient of that kind of statement than a speaker it really doesn’t provoke stressful rumination or analysis of fault. It is a whole heap more relaxing than the inevitable underlying friction that aversive feelings produce.
Conclusion: The moral here is that making (incompatible) Tell Culture revelations to people living in a Guess Culture mindset can be tactless, selfish, ineffective and frustrating to both parties.