Question One

How does culture affect how people communicate, in terms of both style and content?

Any act of communication involves some topic or issue that people deem worth sharing with others. To what extent are the topics that are the content of our communication shaped more by our cultural background than by unique individual preferences? Further, each act of communication is also performed in a particular style: one's tone of voice and other nonverbal behaviors reveal the "attitude" we have about the topic, the persons with whom we are communicating, and/or the context in which communication takes place. Most of us assume that these choices about content and communication style are a reflection of our unique identity. Is this true, or are many of these choices determined by culture?