Current guidance for organizational spokespersons lacks a clear theoretical and empirical foundation. This article describes a study designed to rank preferences for five previously identified rhetorical strategies for responding to hostile questions in environmental public meetings based on speech act theory. Responses based on the timing strategy (i.e., claiming that the questioner's request already has been addressed) were most preferred, whereas those based on the agency strategy (i.e., claiming that some other agent is responsible) were least preferred. In addition, some responses based on the desirability strategy (i.e., providing reasons that the questioner actually does not want his or her request fulfilled) were as preferred as those based on the timing strategy.
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