The Chaffee principle: the most likely effect of communication … is further communication

Steven Chaffee stated that ‘the most likely “effect” of communication…is further communication' (p. 72). The present study asks to what extent this offering, referred to as ‘The Chaffee Principle,’ is realized in extant communication research. A manual content analysis of two top-tier communication journals (N = 2,040) offers an assessment of empirical attention to a variety of communicative acts in mass, interpersonal, and mediated-interpersonal communication research, as well as across subfields, contexts, methods, and time. The analysis finds that communication-to-communication effect sizes (r = .28) largely surpass those found in more dominant areas, and yet receive relatively scant attention in the communication literature. A call is made for a more systematic study of The Chaffee Principle to advance communication research.