Home Communication and miscommunication: The role of egocentric processes
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Communication and miscommunication: The role of egocentric processes

  • Boaz Keysar

    Boaz Keysar is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago. He earned his B.A. from the Hebrew University in 1985, and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1989. His research centers on the psychology of thinking and communication. Dr. Keysar's honors and awards include a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, National Institute of Mental Health research grants, a United-States Israel Binational Science Foundation research grant, and a Fulbright Scholarship.

     EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: March 13, 2007
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill
Author Information
Intercultural Pragmatics
From the journal Volume 4 Issue 1

Abstract

Communication is typically considered to be guided by principles of cooperation, requiring the consideration of the communication partner's mental states for its success. Miscommunication, in turn, is considered a product of noise and random error. I argue that communication proceeds in a relatively egocentric manner, with addressees routinely interpreting what speakers say from their own perspective, and speakers disambiguating their utterances with little consideration to the mental states of their addressees. Speakers also tend to overestimate how effective they are, believing that their message is understood more often than it really is. Together, these findings suggest a systematic cause for miscommunication.

About the author

Boaz Keysar

Boaz Keysar is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago. He earned his B.A. from the Hebrew University in 1985, and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1989. His research centers on the psychology of thinking and communication. Dr. Keysar's honors and awards include a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, National Institute of Mental Health research grants, a United-States Israel Binational Science Foundation research grant, and a Fulbright Scholarship.

Published Online: 2007-03-13
Published in Print: 2007-03-20

© Walter de Gruyter

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Sociolinguistic scales
  2. Going beyond pragmatic failures: Dissonance in intercultural communication
  3. Branding a symbol: Context and meaning across cultures
  4. Communication and miscommunication: The role of egocentric processes
  5. Redefining L. S. Vygotsky's non-classical psychology
  6. Book review
  7. Contributors to this issue
https://doi.org/10.1515/IP.2007.004

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Sociolinguistic scales
  2. Going beyond pragmatic failures: Dissonance in intercultural communication
  3. Branding a symbol: Context and meaning across cultures
  4. Communication and miscommunication: The role of egocentric processes
  5. Redefining L. S. Vygotsky's non-classical psychology
  6. Book review
  7. Contributors to this issue
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 23.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/IP.2007.004/html
Scroll to top button