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Theory in communications
Expectancy violations theory (EVT) is a theory of communication that analyzes how individuals respond to unanticipated violations of social norms and expectations. The theory was proposed by Judee K. Burgoon in the late 1970s and continued through the 1980s and 1990s as "nonverbal expectancy violations theory", based on Burgoon's research studying proxemics. Burgoon's work initially analyzed individuals' allowances and expectations of personal distance and how responses to personal distance violations were influenced by the level of liking and relationship to the violators. The theory was later changed to its current name when other researchers began to focus on violations of social behavior expectations beyond nonverbal communication. This theory sees communication as an exchange of behaviors, where one individual's behavior can be used to violate the expectations of another. Participants in communication will perceive the exchange either positively or negatively, depending upon an existing personal relationship or how favorably the violation is perceived. Violations of expectancies cause arousal and compel the recipient to initiate a series of cognitive appraisals of the violation. The theory predicts that expectancies influence the outcome of the communication interaction as either positive or negative and predicts that positive violations increase the attraction of the violator and negative violations decrease the attraction of the violator.

The EVT examines three main components in interpersonal communication situations: Expectancies, communicator reward valence, and violation valence.

Expectancy refers to what an individual anticipates will happen in a given situation. Expectancies are primarily based upon social norms and specific characteristics and idiosyncrasies of the communicators. Burgoon (1978) notes that people do not view others' behaviors as random. Rather, they have various expectations of how others should think and behave. EVT proposes that observation and interaction with others leads to expectancies. The two types of expectancies noted are predictive and prescriptive. Predictive expectations are "behaviors we expect to see because they are the most typical," (Houser, 2005) and vary across cultures. Pre interactional expectations are the package of knowledge and skills a person already has before entering a conversation. Interactant variables are the traits of those persons involved in the communication, such as sex, attractiveness, race, culture, status, and age. Environmental variables include the amount of space available and the nature of the territory surrounding the interaction. Interaction variables include social norms, purpose of the interaction, and formality of the situation. Relational characteristics refer to factors such as similarity, familiarity, status and liking. Immediacy cues such as conversational distance, lean, body orientation, gaze, and touch may differ between the genders as they create psychological closeness or distance between the interactants.

The communicator reward valence is an evaluation one makes about the person who committed a violation of expectancy. Em Griffin summarizes the concept behind communicator reward valence as "the sum of positive and negative attributes brought to the encounter plus the potential to reward or punish in the future". When one individual interacts with another, Burgoon believes he or she will assess the "positive and negative attributes that person brings to the encounter". The term 'communicator reward valence' is used to describe the results of this assessment. When examining the context, relationship, and communicator's characteristics in a given encounter, individuals will arrive at an expectation for how that person should behave. Changing even one of these expectancy variables may lead to a different expectation. For example, in different cultures, directly looking into a speaker's eyes, especially in a personal conversation, can represent distinct meanings.

Behavior violations arouse and distract, calling attention to the qualities of the violator and the relationship between the interactants. A key component of EVT is the notion of violation valence, or the association the receiver places on the behavior violation. A violatee's response to an expectancy violation can be positive or negative, and is dependent on two conditions: positive or negative interpretation of the behavior and the nature (rewardingness) of the violator. The nature of the violator is evaluated through many categories – attractiveness, prestige, ability to provide resources, or associated relationship. For instance, a violation of one's personal distance might have more positive valence if committed by a wealthy, powerful, physically appealing member of the opposite sex than a filthy, poor, homeless person with foul breath. The evaluation of the violation is based upon the relationship between the particular behavior and the valence of the actor. Another perspective of violation valence is that the perceived positive or negative value assigned to a breach of expectations is inconsequential of who the violator is. There are two kinds of arousals. Cognitive arousal is an idea that people will be mentally aware of the violation. Physical occurs when people have body actions and behaviors in response to the deviations from their expectations.

EVT builds upon a number of communication axioms. In humans, territoriality refers to an individual's sense of ownership over physical items, space, objects or ideas, and defensive behavior in response to territorial invasions. Primary territories are considered exclusive to an individual. When an individual perceives one of their needs has been compromised, EVT predicts that they will react. For instance, when an offensive violation occurs, the individual tends to react as though protecting their territory.

EVT offers an opportunity to study how individuals communicate through personal space. This part of the theory explains the notion of "personal space" and an individual's reactions to others who appear to "violate" their sense of personal space. What people define as personal space, however, varies from culture to culture and from person to person. The "success" or "failure" of violations are linked to perceived attraction, credibility, influence and involvement. The context and purpose of interaction are relevant, as are the communicator characteristics of gender, relationships, status, social class, ethnicity and culture. Spatial distance during an interaction can be an indication of what type of relationship exists between the people involved. There are 4 different personal zones defined by Hall. These zones include:
Personal distance: (18 inches – 4 feet) – Reserved for conversations with friends, extended family, associates, and group discussions. The personal distance will give each person more space compared with the intimate distance, but is still close enough to involve touching one another. Across the proxemic zones, actions can be interpreted differently among different cultures. For example, Japanese people do not address others by their first names unless they have been given permission. Calling someone by their first name in Japan without permission is considered an insult. In the Japanese culture, they address people using their last name and 'san', which is equivalent to 'Mr. ', 'Mrs.' and 'Ms.' in the English language. The way Japanese people address each other is an example of a verbal proxemic zone. A Japanese person allowing another to call them by their first name is an example of intimate distance, because this is a privilege extended only someone very close to them.

It is important to note that EVT can apply to both non relational interaction and close relationships. In 1998, more than twenty years after the theory was first published, several studies were conducted to catalog the types of expectancy violations commonly found in close relationships. Support or confirmation is an act that provides social support in a particular time of need, such as sitting with a friend who is sick. Criticism or accusation is critical of the receiver and accuse the individual of an offense. These are violations because they are accusations not expected. An example is a ball player telling a teammate he should have caught the ball rather than supportively giving him or her a slap on the back and offering words of encouragement. Relationship intensification or escalation intensifies the commitment of the communicator. For instance, saying "I love you" signifies a deepening of a romantic relationship. Relationship de escalation signifies a decrease in commitment of the communicator. An example might be spending more time apart. Relational transgressions are violations of the perceived rules of the relationship. Examples include having an affair, deception, or being disloyal. Acts of devotion are unexpected overtures that imply specialness in the relationship. Buying flowers for no particular occasion falls into this category. Acts of disregard show that the partner is unimportant. This could be as simple as excluding a partner or a friend from a collective activity. Gestures of inclusion are actions that show an unexpected interest in having the other included in special activities or life. Examples include invitations to spend a special holiday with someone, disclosure of personal information, or inviting the partner to meet one's family. Uncharacteristic relational behavior is unexpected action that is not consistent with the partner's perception of the relationship. A common example is one member of an opposite sex friendship demanding a romantic relationship of the other. In later review of the studies, the support or confirmation category was inserted into acts of devotion and included another category, uncharacteristic social behavior. These are acts that are not relational but are unexpected, such as a quiet person raising his or her voice. In terms of the response to expectancy violations, the sensitivity of expectancy violations varies from genders. Research found that women are less tolerant than men when their expectation are violated by negative behaviors, regardless of the types of violations such as dishonesty and immorality.

Expectations with friends formulate over time and are usually brought together by a series of observations of behavior and predictions on how that friend will act in the future. When these expectations are violated, it often can be damaging and dangerous for a close friendship. It can cause an end to the friendship and create a strong negative experience in that person's life. Over time, people might expect friends to act consistently around them until a violation to this expectation takes place. For example, when they begin "breaking promises or even acting in an inauthentic manner to impress others, can have aversive consequences for close relationships" (Cohen 2010). People expect their friends to act in a social manner and adhere to all of our personal rules they set in their minds, such as being nice, kind, considerate, and refraining from any comment that puts another down. This is a part of the personal rules with a personal friendship, though in a different setting with that individual around different people, the rules may be broken. While this might be an offense in one's eyes, it may not be offensive in the others. Each negative experience can deteriorate the relationship and allow more experiences where expectations are continually violated until the relationship is dissolved. Cohen said "the more that a friendship is voluntary, easily replaceable, and disconnected from external pressures to continue, the more vulnerable it is to expectancy violation damage" (Cohen, 2010). Someone will always look for the better option if a negative experience has taken place. The more invested someone is in a friendship, the stronger the effect will have on the individual when expectations are violated. Gender also plays a role in expectancy violation. Friendships with members of the same sex usually operate differently than those between different sexes. Women are generally less tolerant with men when violations have taken place. Relationships, whether it be with the same sex or not, tend to fail over time when one or both parties do not adhere the norms that the other is accustomed to and engage in behaviours such as hostile attitudes, sharp comments, distancing from the other, etc. Both parties are also capable of violating each other's expectations at the same time. It is not just one person in the relationship that perceives behavior as unusual. One can respond to a violation with another social violation, leaving the friendship in confusion of the direction it is going.

Expectations in family relationships are prone to being violated via phubbing. Phubbing is a term coined to describe when an individual goes on their phone and mentally removes themselves from the conversation and physical reality, thus snubbing their interaction partners. This violates expectations in family relationships when a younger individual is around an older adult. Travis Kadylak found that "older adults feel ignored and disrespected" in situations where a younger family member is phubbing. In this case, the younger individually and unconsciously violated the older adult's expectations that stems from the adult's perception of social etiquette. Kadylak calls for further research on how phubbing expectancy violations affect the well being of older adults.

Expectancy violations happen frequently in romantic relationships. In relationships there is an unspoken expectation when interacting and that is the significant other will give their full undivided attention when in the presence of their significant other. As the new generation evolves, the face to face contact has changed. With the access use of phones and social media the attention of individuals has shifted to their devices and continues to become worse. Since there is access to many mobile devices, there has been an increase of lack of communication face to face. This has made it difficult for some relationships to grow and has created conflict because the expectation of attention has been shifted. "Individuals expect conversational partners to be moderately involved in an interaction (Burgoon, Newton, Walther, & Baesler, 1989). Within existing relationships, partners rely on one another to show interest and immediacy in interactions (White, 2008). However, the presence of cell phones and the expectation to be constantly available (Ling, 2012) impacts partners' abilities to give full attention to one another" (Miller Ott, A., & Kelly, L. 2015). Regardless of where the romantic relationship takes place, people are likely to have negative valence about cell phone usage, including texting, viewing news and playing games, if their expectations of attention and intimacy are violated. In addition, excessive cell phone usage during a date has a great impact on romantic partner's negative valence towards the usage. The same behavior in different occasions and contexts is viewed differently in terms of the degree of valence. Research found that same behavior is viewed as more negative in a restaurant than at home. Laura K. Guerrero and Guy F. Bachman found that high quality relationships tend to forgive more than relationships with less investments, yet they tend to inflict hurt intentionally.

Cell phone usage behaviors that do not contradict intimate moment are viewed as positive violations, including sharing interesting messages and playing online games together. People have less negative valence on cell phone usage if they gain more reward from the behaviors. The research concluded that people who are resisted in a romantic relationship perceived the violation of sexual resistance as more negative and unexpected than those resisted in a regular cross sex friendship. The reason might because romantic partners believe that they have clearer and deeper understanding of each other's expectations and degree of acceptance and tolerance. When it comes to message directness of sexual resistance, although the study did not find any significant difference of levels of violation valence and expectedness between direct and indirect messages, direct sexual resistance messages in close relationships proved to be more relationally important than indirect messages. Therefore, direct sexual resistance messages will be a harmful factor that affects the continuity of a romantic relationship. EVT analysis approach also show that if the negative valence happens when partners find the other to be unrewarding, it results in destructive communication, leading to breakups.

EVT posits that deviations from expected behavior can influence social judgments. In the context of teacher dress, formal attire aligns with expectations of a teacher's role, and such congruence typically results in favorable credibility assessments. The impact of clothing on expectations, where attire considered appropriate to the teaching context bolstered perceptions of a teacher's potential for student academic success.

The implications of these studies are twofold: they reaffirm the importance of attire as a component of nonverbal communication within educational settings, and they highlight the potential for teacher attire to align with institutional norms and expectations to enhance educational outcomes. While the preference for formality in attire may vary by educational context, the consensus points to the benefit of teachers adopting attire that reflects the scholastic values and expectations of their specific academic environments. students might be dissatisfied with instructors who talk a lot during class. After researching compulsive communication and communication satisfaction, they concluded that if an instructor is evaluated as credible by the students, his credibility decreases students' dissatisfaction despite his talkativeness. Particularly, instructor's goodwill, such as politeness and care for students, is the most effective characteristic to alleviate students' negative feelings towards them (the talkative instructor). Expanding on this, EVT suggests that communication behaviors deviating from expectations can be perceived as either positive or negative violations. When an instructor's behavior, like excessive talking, contrasts with student expectations of a participatory, student centered environment, it constitutes an expectancy violation. However, the impact of such a violation hinges on the perceived credibility of the instructor. Instructor credibility, shaped by expertise, trustworthiness, and goodwill, can act as a buffer against the negative effects of such expectancy violations. Goodwill, in particular, plays a crucial role. When students perceive an instructor as genuinely concerned about their learning and well being, they are more likely to overlook behaviors otherwise considered negative. This is because EVT emphasizes the relationship's nature over the behavior itself in determining the outcome of expectancy violations. Common expectancies for students include stimulation and interest, instructor behavior, relevance of the course, and the student's expected and actual success in the course. A higher education study on EVT and course ratings analyzed 228 students in seven introductory sociology classes at a university of 25,000 students. Traditional and non traditional students have been shown to expect teachers to make use of examples, provide feedback, and adequately prepare them for exams. According to the study, those who make inappropriate disclosures violate others' expectations most in a classroom environment. Inappropriate disclosures are described as high frequent, negative, offensive and irrelevant topics. Disclosers of inappropriate information are more likely to be described as incompetent students, and they are less likeable than students who disclose appropriate information that are related to course materials. Participants consider effective communication and improving learning as behaviors bringing positive results. However, unprofessional behaviors, such as lack of use of teaching tools decreasing the productivity of classes, lead to negative results. The author states that stakeholders, in the case of the BP Oil spill, held high levels of uncertainty towards the organization due to the high level of expectancy violations committed by BP. Sabrina Helm and Julia Tolsdorf found that firms with greater reputation and customer loyalty are set to high expectations by the public, and tend to suffer more loss in profits in the event of a crisis, while firms with low reputations suffer minor losses. This shows that the public places its trust and loyalty in corporations due to their reputation, thus resulting in favorable outcomes for corporations. This reputation is also an Achilles heel for the corporation in times of crisis because when an expectation violation is committed by the corporations it produces negative outcomes for the corporation and the public's trust in them. Sora Kim also exposes similar findings in her study, specifically on how expectations violations produces uncertainties in stakeholders and the public during times of crisis. YJ Sohn and Ruthann Lariscy use EVT to investigate the role corporate reputation plays in crisis situations and how the crisis affects the reputation valence, especially in a CSR (corporate social responsibility) crisis context. The previous high reputation leads to higher expectations for the corporation, which results in more detailed investigations of the expectation violation behaviors.

Swearing is one example of observable instance of verbal expectancy violations. Examples of swearing expectancy violations include U. S. Vice President Dick Cheney telling Patrick Leahy, Senator of Vermont, to "go fuck yourself", actor Christian Bale lashing out toward a crew member who walked in front of the camera while he was filming, Expletives also vary among different cultures, so valence of expectancy violations involving swearing may differ when used in different contexts. Research has shown that profanity users appear less trustworthy, less sociable, and less educated. The more swearing messages one expresses that violate respondent's expectations in workplaces, the more negative evaluations the respondent will generate about the speaker's incompetency. These traits are likely to appear as fixed among profanity users. However, when conforming to moral expectations, there is no weakening in the parasocial relationship between heroes and participants.

Stephanie Smith examines how recent college graduates react to expectation violations in job searching and career development through communication. Smith finds that recent college graduates employ a package of both traditional and online social networking job searching strategies. As graduates expect job searching would be difficult, they are still surprised by the required intensity and effort. In one manuscript replying to another study, Bishop describes communication deficits in autistic individuals as potentially violating one's expectations for social communication, thus being a form of expectation violation since people with autism can struggle with social communication. One study by Lim, Young, and Brewer hypothesized that people can incorrectly perceive autistic adults as having no credibility or being deceptive. They believed that due to expectancy violations theory, people will judge those who violate their expectations unfavorably in a negative light. They recorded videos of autistic and neurotypical adults attempting to persuade the interviewer that they did not steal an envelope of money and the participants of the study were to judge whether they believed the individuals in the interview were lying or telling the truth. The results showed that the autistic people were perceived as deceptive and less credible than the neurotypicals in the videos. These findings supported the hypothesis that autistic adults can violate expectations through certain behaviors or through other's knowledge of their diagnosis. A similar study by the same researchers, also conducted through interviews, showed that the behaviors of autistic adults can affect their perceived credibility. Another study by Logos, Brewer, and Young sought to determine the effect of EVT in a court setting. Their goal was to determine whether EVT could be applied to autistic adults in a forensic setting, using autistic and non autistic "defendants", hypothesizing that the results would show that autistic adults would be judged guilty due to violations. Results showed that their hypothesis was correct, despite evidence indicating innocence.

EVT assumes that humans have a certain degree of free will. This theory assumes that humans can assess and interpret the relationship and liking between themselves and their conversational partner, and then make a decision whether or not to violate the expectations of the other person. The theory holds that this decision depends on what outcome they would like to achieve. This assumption is based on the interaction position. The interaction position is based on a person's initial stance toward an interaction as determined by a blend of personal Requirements, Expectations, and Desires (RED). These RED factors meld into a person's interaction position of what is needed, anticipated, and preferred. Another critique of the theory is the assumption that expectancy violations are mostly highly consequential acts, negative in nature, and cause uncertainty to increase between communicators. In actuality, research shows expectancy violations vary in frequency, seriousness, and valence. While it is true that many expectancy violations carry a negative valence, numerous are positive and actually reduce uncertainty because they provide additional information within the parameters of the particular relationship, context, and communicators.

Emory Griffin, the author of A First Look at Communication Theory, analyzed unpredictability in EVT.

Because EVT is sociopsychological in nature and focuses on social codes in both intrapersonal and interpersonal communication, it is closely related to communication theories such as cognitive dissonance and uncertainty reduction theory. Recently, this theory has undergone some reconstitution by Burgoon and her colleagues and has resulted in a newly proposed theory known as interaction adaptation theory, which is a more comprehensive explanation of adaptation in interpersonal interaction. The theory also borrows from social exchange theory in that people seek reward out of interaction with others. Two other theories share similar outlooks to EVT – discrepancy arousal theory (DAT) and Patterson's social facilitation model (SFM). Like EVT, DAT explains that a receiver becomes aroused when a communicative behavior does not match the receiver's expectations. In DAT, these differences are called discrepancies instead of expectancy violations. Cognitive dissonance and EVT both try to explain why and how people react to unexpected information and adjust themselves during communication process. The social facilitation model has a similar outlook and labels these differences as unstable changes. A key difference between the theories lies in the receiver's arousal level. Both DAT and SFM maintain that the receiver experiences a physiological response whereas EVT focuses on the attention shift of the receiver. EVT posits that expectancy violations occur frequently and are not always as serious as perceived through the lenses of other theories. Anxiety/uncertainty management theory is the uncertainty and anxiety people have towards each other, relating to EVT this anxiety and uncertainty can differ between cultures. Causing a violation for example violating someones personal distance or communicating ineffectively can cause uncertainty and anxiety. SIP can be used in conjunction with EVT to examine interpersonal and hyperpersonal relationships established through CMC.

The concept of social norms marketing follows expectancy violation in that it is based upon the notion that messages containing facts that vary from perception of the norm will create a positive expectancy violation. Advertising, strategic communications, and public relations base social norms campaigns on this position. Interaction adaptation theory further explores expectancy violations. Developed by Burgoon to take a more comprehensive look at social interaction, IAT posits that people enter into interactions with requirements, expectations, and desires. These factors influence both the initial behavior as well as the response behavior. When faced with behavior that meets an individual's needs, expectations, or desires, the response behavior will be positive. When faced with behavior that does not meet an individual's needs, expectations, or desires, he or she can respond either positively or negatively depending on the degree of violation and positive or negative valence of the relationship. Expectancies exert significant influence on people's interaction patterns, on their impressions of one another, and on the outcomes of their interactions. People who can assume that they are well regarded by their audience are safer engaging in violations and more likely to profit from doing so than are those who are poorly regarded. When the violation act is one that is likely to be ambiguous in its meaning or to carry multiple interpretations that are not uniformly positive or negative, then the reward valence of the communicator can be especially significant in moderating interpretations, evaluations, and subsequent outcomes. EVT also applies to international experience in the workplace. "A foreign newcomer who has the necessary education, work experience, and international experience will be perceived as having the ability to make valuable contribution to the group's task. Consequently, education, work experience and international experience will influence a foreign newcomer's initial task based group acceptance" (Joardar, 2011). It can be argued that a person with significant international experience will be perceived as having had the opportunity to learn how to build valuable relationships in a cross cultural setting. Hence, international experience will have effects on initial relationship based group acceptance as well. Meaning, this will make for a more positive expectancy violation, in the workplace especially. EVT is also used as a framework to analyze the negative impact of mind reading expectations on romantic relationships. In 2015, Wright and Roloff explain the idea of mind reading expectations (MRE) that romantic partners should clearly know about each other's feelings even though they are not being informed. When relational partners have done something wrong without self consciousness, people's expectations are violated. Particularly those who hold high value of MRE are more likely to become distressful once their relational partners are unaware of their violations to expectations. The study asserts that such kinds of violations related to MRE result in responses such as combative attitude and silent treatment, which is harmful to long term romantic relationships.