Responsibility and Nonverbal Reassurance Seeking

This study aimed to examine the effect of augmented (vs. diminished) personal responsibility on nonverbal reassurance seeking (NVRS): the repeated prompting of safety-related information via mutually understood, facial expressions, postural shifts, hand gestures, and abrupt changes in speech. After being randomized to conditions of augmented (vs. diminished) responsibility, undergraduate student participants were given an opportunity to seek reassurance after receiving ambiguous feedback about a contamination threat following an unfamiliar dishwashing task with a confederate participant. Confederates and participants reported more verbal reassurance seeking in the augmented responsibility condition. Confederates observed significantly more NVRS in this condition. Results suggest that beliefs of personal responsibility may lead to verbal and nonverbal reassurance seeking.