kb/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expectancy_violations_theory-5.md

title	chunk	source	category	tags	date_saved	instance
Expectancy violations theory	6/17	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expectancy_violations_theory	reference	science, encyclopedia	2026-05-05T10:06:53.972000+00:00	kb-cron

Expectancy violations happen frequently in romantic relationships. In relationships there is an unspoken expectation when interacting and that is the significant other will give their full undivided attention when in the presence of their significant other. As the new generation evolves, the face to face contact has changed. With the access use of phones and social media the attention of individuals has shifted to their devices and continues to become worse. Since there is access to many mobile devices, there has been an increase of lack of communication face to face. This has made it difficult for some relationships to grow and has created conflict because the expectation of attention has been shifted. "Individuals expect conversational partners to be moderately involved in an interaction (Burgoon, Newton, Walther, & Baesler, 1989). Within existing relationships, partners rely on one another to show interest and immediacy in interactions (White, 2008). However, the presence of cell phones and the expectation to be constantly available (Ling, 2012) impacts partners' abilities to give full attention to one another" (Miller-Ott, A., & Kelly, L. 2015). Regardless of where the romantic relationship takes place, people are likely to have negative valence about cell phone usage, including texting, viewing news and playing games, if their expectations of attention and intimacy are violated. In addition, excessive cell phone usage during a date has a great impact on romantic partner's negative valence towards the usage. However, Miller-Ott and Kelly found that a small amount of cell phone usage during a date is acceptable, such as responding to a text message and quickly bringing attention back to the date partner. The same behavior in different occasions and contexts is viewed differently in terms of the degree of valence. Research found that same behavior is viewed as more negative in a restaurant than at home. Since people are more likely to have higher expectations for undivided attention during formal contexts, using a cell phone in formal dates will more negatively violate partner's expectations. Divided attention is acceptable in casual contexts – therefore, the degree of expectancy violations is low under a hanging out context. After expectation are violated in the romantic relationships, one may assume that an apology may fix expectations that were violated; however, Benjamin W Chiles and Michael E. Roloff found that "apology is positively evaluated by apologizers, this relationship is moderated by their expectations of acceptance prior to the actual response to the apology". Laura K. Guerrero and Guy F. Bachman found that high quality relationships tend to forgive more than relationships with less investments, yet they tend to inflict hurt intentionally. In a study done in 2022, Lilly and Buehler conducted a survey measuring young adults' reaction to sexually explicit introductions on an online dating tool versus a traditional introduction. They found that young adults were much more likely to negatively react to a sexually explicit introduction as opposed to a traditionally one. The study discusses how EVT is the main cause of this negative reaction. Because the receiver is expecting a traditional introduction as opposed to a sexually explicit one, the receiver's expectations are violated and they experience a negative reaction. Lilly and Buehler recommend while using an online dating tool to wait to send a sexually explicit message until it follows potential expectations if at all. Following expectations can be critical for online dating even in a more minute sense. DelGreco and Denes found when it comes to a woman receiving a compliment from a man using an online dating tool, her response can leave a lasting impact if it violates expectations. The study found that men expect women to be thankful for the compliment. If the woman negatively violates expectations with agreement or self praise, there tends to be the biggest negative impact left on the man. If the woman positively violates expectations with denial or disagreement, there is still a significant negative impact left on the man. Ultimately, EVT and gender roles/expectations can be very applicable to one another. Barak and Loewenstein discovered that inconsistencies in relationships are not always resolved by adjusting the relationships. Instead, people often reinterpret the inconsistencies to avoid modifying their relationships, and this is more common when the inconsistencies are large.