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Social Cognition, Vol. 9, No. 1, 1991, pp. 25-46
JOHN H. FLEMING University of Minnesota
JOHN M. DARLEY Princeton University
We examined how senders communicate hidden messages to an audience while
simultaneously conveying a credible but misleading message to a second audience.
Senders made two sets of videotapes communicating the locations of secret meetings
and expressing preferences between pairs of objects. We then showed these sets
of videotapes, each consisting of a truthful, a misleading, and two hidden message
communications intended for different sets of audiences, to four observer audiences: the other senders, a group of the senders' friends, a group of adult strangers, and
a group of the senders' parents. Results showed that regardless of the audience
or audiences for which the hidden messages were intended, senders successfully
communicated their hidden messages to the intended audiences; the hidden
messages went undetected by the unintended audiences. Specifically, senders used various encryption systems (hand signals and teenage argot) to communicate
their messages. We discuss these findings in terms of strategic communication
processes.
Social actors in the real world must be concerned about, but can also
profit from the possibility that observers will infer that their underlying
This research supported in part by grant-in-aid from the Graduate School of the
University of Minnesota to John H. Fleming, by grant from the John D. and Catherine
T. MacArthur Foundation to John M. Darley, and by National Institute of Health
Training grant (1-T32-MH18021-03).
The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Deborah
Prentice, Marti Hope Gonzales, and Kelly G. Shaver for their helpful comments earlier drafts of this manuscript. The authors would also like to thank Robin Cooper
and Linda Ginzel for their assistance with data collection and Lea Darley for her help organizing the high school students. Portions of this research presented at the
meetings of the Social Psychology Winter Conference, Park City, Utah, January 9-15,
1988.
Correspondence concerning this article should be sent to John H. Fleming, De
partment of Psychology, University of Minnesota, N321 Elliott Hall, 75 East River Road, Minneapolis, MN 55455.
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MIXED MESSAGES: THE MULTIPLE
AUDIENCE PROBLEM AND STRATEGIC
COMMUNICATION
26 FLEMING AND DARLEY
personalities and attitudes are consistent with their overt behavior
(Jones, 1990; Jones & Harris, 1967; Ross, 1977)....