The Impact of Emotional Communication, Part II

Last week, we introduced the scenario of an emotionally charged discussion on political rhetoric. Here were our three choices:

  • Discuss my thoughts and opinions on the subject and get into most likely an ugly conversation/argument
  • Agree with everything she said (placate her) and continue on in a conversation that grating on me
  • Tell her that it is best that I walk away from the conversation and talk to her the next day

I choose the last option, walking away from a conversation that (a) was only going to get worse if I chose to engage and (b) no matter what I said to her, she would never change her mind because she is one of those people (“she is always right”). Additionally, we were friendly but I did not have a significant emotional investment in the relationship. Due to that, I chose the last option so I would not have a significant conflict but did hope to spare the friendship. After walking away, I went upstairs to my room to check some emails and prepare for the next day. I preceded to receive four or five emotionally filled texts from her, stating how immature I was and how I embarrassed her by walking away from her. Now, if she would have just dropped the subject, I would have moved on and we could have salvaged our professional friendship. After the texts, we actually did not see each other the rest of the conference. I received another text a few days later of a similar nature to the previous texts. Due to that, I decided not to respond. Was this the right decision? What are your thoughts?

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