Abstract
Why do people make requests indirectly? We examined the goals of indirect requests in order to answer this question. In Study 1, 162 university students completed a questionnaire regarding the goals of indirect requests. Exploratory factor analysis indicated that the goals of indirect requests could be classified into five types: concern for the listener, making an effective request, avoidance of explicit refusal, self-impression management, or conveyance of indebtedness. In Study 2, we examined whether these goals actually affect the use of indirect requests by conducting a questionnaire study with 25 university students. The results indicated that some goals (making an effective request, avoidance of explicit refusal, self-impression management, and conveyance of indebtedness) have positive effects on indirect requests, whereas the goal of concern for the listener has no effect. Therefore, we concluded that these four goals which have positive effects are reasonable goals for indirect requests.
