Investigating Nonviolent Communication Skills as a Tool for Managing Anxiety and Attributional Confidence to Foster Effective Communication in Difficult Interpersonal Encounters

People who are careless and dishonest (two of three so-called 'nightmare traits') are prone to be involved in conflicts or relational aggression, which can have detrimental effects on team performance and organizational effectiveness. Carelessness and dishonesty are likely to affect other people’s anxiety/uncertainty management (AUM), which, in turn, is linked to communication effectiveness. This study explores the effectiveness of nonviolent communication (NVC) for anxiety/uncertainty management to foster effective communication in encounters with people who are careless and/or dishonest. It is hypothesized that NVC positively affects perceived communication effectiveness through AUM. Furthermore, the effects of NVC on AUM is hypothesized to depend on carelessness and dishonesty. A vignette-based online survey was distributed among students and people in the workforce in Germany and the Netherlands (n = 60). The results show that NVC is related to effective communication but that this relation is not mediated by AUM. Additionally, carelessness and dishonesty strongly (and positively) predict AUM. These results suggest that NVC is a valuable communication approach for facilitating not only effective communication but also for helping to reduce misunderstandings.