Interactions of Two or More People
Social eavesdropping, by nature, occurs within communication networks, defined as the patterns of contact between communication partners created by the flow of messages among communicators through time and space (Monge & Contractor, 2003, p. 3). For social eavesdropping to occur, there must beat least three people involved two or more interactants and an eavesdropper. This network-based perspective extends beyond humans. Animal communication scholars who study social eavesdropping use communication networks to model relationships beyond dyads, defining these networks as groups of several animals within signaling/receiving range of one another (Doutrelant & McGregor, 2000; Searcy & Nowicki, 2005). Different types of ties exist in networks (Borgatti, Brass, & Halgin, 2014; Borgatti & Lopez-Kidwell,
2014), including similarities (e.g., participation in events, comemberships in groups, sharing attributes, social relations (e.g., kinship, role-based, perceptual, affective relationships, interactions (e.g., transactions and exchanges such as talking with or sending email to) and flows (e.g., the movement of information, knowledge, goods, or other resources from one source to another. Our definition of social eavesdropping assumes that interaction ties among communicators provide opportunities for third parties to create social eavesdropping ties. This network conceptualization eliminates the possibility of gathering information from the actions of one individual (e.g., observation see Miller & Jablin, 1991). Information flows between the two interactants and from the interactants to the eavesdropper it can also flow from the eavesdropper back to the interactants, influencing the eavesdropper’s evaluation of social risk and information value. Social eavesdropping ties are asymmetric information flow ties (i.e., information flows from the interactants to the eavesdropper. Using Goffman’s (1979) terms, the interactants are addressed recipients and ratified participants in the conversation. Ratified participants negotiate privacy boundaries of information shared between them, but do not do so with the eavesdropper (Petronio, 2002, 2010).
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