Expectancy violations have been studied in a range of disciplines. In theories of social cognition, an expectancy violation occurs when events do not match pre-defined schema. In communications theory, an expectancy violation occurs when behavior does not match the communicative setting [cf. 9]. We draw on these conceptions when defining expectancy violation as an instance where an individual reports an expected audience that is not an intended audience. The previously described
disconnect between intended and expected familial audience is an example. In perceiving unwanted gaze, the individual may be forced to renegotiate or coordinate the communicative setting anew. Using paired t-tests, we identify significant expectancy violations occurring at three social category levels and six enumerated social groups (Table 3). Following Petronio's conception of boundary coordination, we hypothesize that an expectancy violation may be associated with increased levels of privacy in an attempt to decrease permeability of the disclosure boundary. We further hypothesize that expectancy violations have differing magnitude by social group. For example, an expectancy violation by family members may not be viewed with the same intensity as an expectancy violation by outsider audiences.