Keeping Conflicts Latent: "Salient" versus "Non-Salient" Interpersonal Conflict Management Strategies of Japanese

Cross-cultural studies on interpersonal conflict management have revealed that Japanese have a tendency to avoid conflict, preferring non-salient strategies over confronting, salient ones. This study aimed to elaborate on the motives surrounding their non-salient strategy choice, specifically focusing on their intents behind keeping potential conflicts to themselves (i.e., non-salient intents), and how these intents affect their conflict strategy preference. Questionnaires were collected from 309 Japanese university students. Factor analysis revealed two non-salient intents of Considerateness and Avoidance, along with three strategies: Active Non-Salient, Passive Non-Salient and Salient. A model depicting the relationship between non-salient intents and conflict strategies was tested through path analysis, revealing that the Considerateness intent was positively associated with the Active Non-Salient strategy, while negatively associating with Passive Non-Salient strategy. Avoidance intent positively affected the Active Non-Salient, while negatively affecting the Salient strategy. While existing studies have not adequately addressed the differentiation between salient and non- salient conflict strategies, this study proposed a salient—non-salient conflict strategy axis, providing an original account for why people choose to keep a conflict latent. Implications of this new non-salient conflict model were discussed.