This study aims to examine cultural differences between South Koreans and U.S. Americans in terms
of the effects of communication direction and message type on truthfulness and fairness evaluation of
messages varying in maxim-violation. According to Information Manipulation Theory, deception can
occur when messages are manipulated by covertly violating four conversational maxims: quantity,
quality, relevance, and manner maxims. Because covert violation of each maxim may not be equal in
its intended effects, the current research asked if the various types of manipulated messages can
differ in the extent to which individuals evaluate veracity and fairness of each maxim-violated
message. Veracity (i.e., truthfulness) deals with the cognitive dimension of how truthful the messages
are, while fairness is associated with the judgment of how the messages are neutral and unbiased.
Given that culture can affect one’s values and perceptions, the current study hypothesizes that people
in Korea and the U.S. differ in their judgment of messages, which are exchanged at workplaces
especially. Undergraduates in South Korea and the U.S. participated in this study and were asked to
imagine themselves as employees and to evaluate messages given in upward, downward, or
horizontal communication directions. This study used a 2 (nation: Korea and U.S.) X 3 (communication
direction: downward, upward, and horizontal) X 5 (message: one baseline message and four
messages with maxims-violated) between-subject design. Participants were randomly assigned to one
of fifteen scenarios. The findings showed that Koreans evaluated the clarity-violation message as more
truthful than the other messages and the quality-violation message as the least truthful, but fairness
evaluation did not differ across the message types. On the other hand, U.S. Americans evaluated the
baseline message as higher in truthfulness and in fairness than the other messages and
quality-violated message as the least truthful and the least fair. Overall, communication direction did
not differentially affect truthfulness or fairness evaluations of messages. But when examined
specifically for each nation, only Koreans showed that messages given in the downward
communication situation were evaluated as more truthful than those given in the upward
communication situation. These findings may indicate that the collectivistic versus individualistic
orientation differences between Koreans and Americans influence truthfulness and fairness
evaluations of messages and that truth judgment is not clearly differentiated from fairness judgment.
In addition, when a message contains falsified information (i.e., the message with quality maxim
violation), Koreans and Americans may not differ in their veracity judgment of the message since such
message is seen as distinctly deceptive (i.e., an outright lie) in both cultures. When a message contains
other maxim violations (quantity, relevance, or manner), however, cultural differences may appear,
depending on the situations individuals find themselves in. Other findings and implications thereof are
discussed in more detail in the paper.