“I Need to Be Explicit: You're Wrong”: Impact of Face Threats on Social Evaluations in Online Instructional Communication

Online instructional communication, as found in ask-an-expert forums, e-learning discussion boards or online help desks, creates situations that threaten the recipient's face. This study analyzed the evaluation of face-threatening acts with a 1×3 design. An online forum thread confronted a layperson with an expert who either (a) addressed the layperson's misconceptions directly and frankly, (b) mitigated face threats through explicit hints about the need to be direct or (c) communicated politely and indirectly. College students read these dialogues and assessed the expert communicator's facework, recipient orientation, credibility and likability. Results showed that polite experts were evaluated most positively; explicit hints did not improve perceptions of face-threatening acts. This implies that users of instructional forums prefer communicators to be polite even when face threats are necessary. We discuss practical implications for different online instruction contexts and make suggestions for further research.