Phatic Expression

A Phatic expression is a communication construct that serves a social function while providing no intrinsic value. Small talk and pleasantries are common examples of phatic expressions.

These expression communicate no content and are purposeless. “Hello” and “how are you” are examples. They don’t require responses and the responses are often phatic themselves. When you answer the phone, the other person knows this because of audible cues, such as no more ringing. Or when walking into a store, the shopkeeper can see this clearly and there’s no need for a “hello”. Yet it feels rude and awkward to sidestep these social conventions.

Instead, their value is in social cues and conventions. They establish social bonds and demonstrate social duty. Usually they are acknowledgements, to reaffirm that everyone knows what’s going on socially. By going through the motions, you signal that you are open to communications.

Going against the phatic expression, ironically, will jar this social convention. You signal that you are not necessarily receiving the other participant. When done aggressively, such as glaring with no response, it’s understood that something is maligned. When inadvertently ignored, this signals to others that you are not on the same page yet to begin communication. Social awkwardness can sometimes be caused by not embracing phatic expression. The stereotype of Sheldon from Big Bang Theory demonstrates examples of this.

In a way, phatic expressions are like TCP handshakes. While networking can use parity checks to maintain integrity, the receipt acknowledge in TCP serves to signal to origin that the packet was successfully sent. In real life, there are often many “parity checks”: eye contact, context from statements that only apply to you, etc. But we still use explicit acknowledgements to complete the handshake, in our human social communication protocol.