Interaction Adaptation Theory

Guiding Principles

The first principle of IAT is that people are innately predisposed to adapt and adjust their interaction patterns to each other. For example, if one person turns slightly toward the other person, the second individual may turn slightly away in response. This inclination to adjust one's behavior fulfills a variety of purposes, including survival, communication, and coordination needs. The second principle of IAT is that people biologically move toward synchronicity with each other. In other words, there is biological pressure for interaction behaviors to mesh together and match each other at particular moments in time, as happens, for example, when parent and infant sounds and movements become coordinated with each other. The only exception to this principle is when physical safety or comfort is in question. The third principle of IAT is that one's needs for closeness (need to approach and be approached) and avoidance (or separation) are cyclical and dialectical rather than uniformly fixed. When approach needs are met, then the pull of avoidance needs becomes stronger and vice versa. You might see this principle in action when, for example, two people stand close together at a crowded party, but as soon as there is a little more room in the area, they step or lean away from each other.

The fourth principle of IAT is that in a social situation, people tend to reciprocate and match each other's behaviors. This is especially true in socially polite, normative, and routine communicative interactions and less true when communicators have a structural relationship such as mutual role expectations. Smiling is a good example. Two strangers meeting at a party will probably exchange smiles, but you might not see the same behavior in a routine task interaction at the workplace. The fifth principle of IAT is that when communicating with each other, people exhibit both reciprocal and compensatory behaviors. To build rapport, an employee might exhibit reciprocity, through behaviors that function similarly, such as laughing and showing pleasant facial expressions whenever the boss does the same. A librarian might show compensatory behaviors that function in opposing ways, such as lowering one's voice when a patron is talking loudly. The sixth principle of IAT is that, although people have biological and sociological pressures to adapt to one another, the degree of strategic adaptation will vary depending on several factors, such as the consistency of an individual's behavior, an individual's awareness of himself or herself and of the other person, the ability to adjust behavior in response to others, and cultural differences.

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