User:Kdoming5/Multiple audience dilemma

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Additionally, the Self-Presentation Theory, also known as impression management, suggests that people strategically present themselves in ways that are likely to be perceived favorably by their audience. In the case of the multiple audience dilemma, individuals may feel pressure to present themselves differently to each audience in order to meet their expectations and avoid negative evaluations. Indeed, Yu Kasagi and Ikuo Daibo found that when faced with the multiple audience problem, self-presentation was extremely challenging and required effortful self-presentation techniques that depleted one's self-regulatory resources. Moreover, the Attribution theory proposes that individuals make attributions about the causes of behavior based on their observations of others. In the case of the multiple audience dilemma, one may be concerned about how their behavior will be attributed by each audience, hence may adjust their behavior accordingly.

Factors
The multiple audience dilemma can further be influenced by factors like cultural and social norms, individual personality traits as well as the power dynamics between the different groups. For instance, an individual from a collectivist culture may experience more pressure to conform to group expectations, while individuals with a strong need for individuality and social approval may experience anxiety in situations where their behavior is being judged by multiple audiences.

The biggest factors that researchers have found to effect the multiple audience dilemma were social anxiety and familiarity. Austin Lee Nichols and Catherine A. Cottrell studied the factors that affect how confident and successful people were in this dilemma. In this study, participants were assigned to be either an actor or part of an audience of two. In the known audience condition, actors met with two unfamiliar people and then later interacted with both of them at the same time. In the unknown audience condition, the actors interacted with the two audience members together without having met them individually first. The participants were then asked questions about the interactions. The researchers found that people are generally more confident in conveying different images of themselves when they are already familiar with the audiences versus interacting with unfamiliar audiences. The researchers also found that people that are socially anxious were found to be less successful in conveying a common image to different audiences at the same time than people that are not socially anxious. As a result of being unsuccessful in these situations, people that are socially anxious may experience increased anxiety in the future about these interactions. As having high confidence increases a person's ability to convey a certain impression of themselves in a social situation, people with social anxiety are more likely to be unsuccessful in this dilemma as they may falter under the social pressure.

Research was also conducted to assess gender differences in the multiple audience dilemma. A study by Corey L. Cook concluded that oftentimes multiple audience problems can be created that differed by gender because men and women have different self-presentational goals, especially in the context of the workplace. Another study conducted by Yu Kasagi and Ikuo Daibo examined the effect of gender on self-presentation in multiple audience situations. In this study, participants were tasked with having a brief conversation with an opposite-sex partner, and researchers later introduced a same-sex observer of the conversation. The researchers found that participants presented themselves to the opposite-sex as more physically attractive when they were not being observed versus being observed by the same-sex. The study also found that the participants presented themselves as more friendly and socially desirable when they were also being perceived by the same-sex. These studies show how the behavior of people can differ when presented with the multiple audience dilemma based on gender.

Interestingly, one study sought to examine if the multiple audience problem existed online, specifically on social networking sites like Facebook and Instagram. These platforms have provided users with a space to be simultaneously and continuously perceived my multiple audiences (friends, family, employers, etc.), making self-presentation and impression management a major part of everyday life. The study investigated and empirically substantiated four key factors that supported the existence of the multiple audience problem in the online space; users befriended multiple audiences, users believed that they were being viewed by different audiences, users believed that the perceptions that the different audiences held of them varied, and users did not segregate their audiences by using the 'grouping' function.

Strategies
When faced with the multiple audience problem, there are certain interactional and communicational strategies that people can employ to help resolve the dilemma, namely, audience segregation, covert messaging, and role distancing.

Audience segregation is the phenomenon of separating the different audiences or groups of people in our lives from each other based on the role or image that we intend to convey to that specific audience. By segregating the audiences for which we have conflicting impressions or images that we wish to portray, it eliminates the pressure of trying to convey multiples images at the same time. One researcher coined this strategy as the 'first line of defense', and likened it to the 'flight' response from the popular 'fight or flight' paradigm.

The following strategies are usually employed when audience segregation is not possible, and are likened to the 'fight' response and the 'second line of defense'. Covert messaging, or sending hidden messages, in a conversation involving multiple audiences could include whispering, speaking a different language, using some sort of code, or alluding to things that are only known to one of the audiences. By sending hidden messages, the person in the dilemma could secretly try to express or convey the image that is already known to that specific audience. For example, children's films oftentimes have two audiences, children and adults, and these films are often able to covertly convey adult content to the adult audience as the children do not possess the knowledge to understand. One study found that people were generally successful when trying to covertly convey a message in conversation.

Role distancing is the phenomenon of separating oneself from the role or image that is being portrayed in that current moment by making signals or exhibiting behavior that would allude to the separation. Role distancing could look like speaking in a certain tone or sending active cues that convey to one or both audiences that the image that is being portrayed should not be taken at face value. For example, an older child, after being encouraged by their parent, could ride a merry-go-round ride meant for younger children and act bored or nonchalant on the ride to both appear as grown-up to his peers and appease his parents' expectations of getting on the ride.