title: Do you want the good news or the bad news first? The nature and consequences of news order preferences.
abstract: Information often comes as a mix of good and bad news, prompting the question, "Do you want the good news or the bad news first?" In such cases, news-givers and news-recipients differ in their concerns and considerations, thus creating an obstacle to ideal communication. In three studies, we examined order preferences of news-givers and news-recipients and the consequences of these preferences. Study 1 confirmed that news-givers and news-recipients differ in their news order preferences. Study 2 tested two solutions to close the preference gap between news-givers and recipients and found that both perspective-taking and priming emotion-protection goals shift news-givers' delivery patterns to the preferred order of news-recipients. Study 3 provided evidence that news order has consequences for recipients, such that opening with bad news (as recipients prefer) reduces worry, but this emotional benefit undermines motivation to change behavior.
authors.affiliation: 1University of California, Riverside, USA.
authors.forename: Angela M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Legg
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sweeny
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003142:Communication; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010552:Personality Assessment; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: bad news delivery; communication; giving bad news; news order; news-givers; news-recipients