Face (social interaction)

Face is the socially valued image of dignity, competence, and standing that a person claims or is granted during interaction. It depends on how others recognize that image.

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Facework: Communicative actions used to sustain, protect, or restore a person’s socially valued image. Names the practices through which people manage face during interaction.
Erving Goffman: A sociologist whose studies of everyday interaction shaped modern accounts of social performance and face. Goffman introduced face as an interactional image sustained through others’ responses.
Face-negotiation theory: A communication theory describing how people manage face during conflict across cultural contexts. It extends face concerns into conflict styles and intercultural communication.
Conflict resolution: Processes for addressing disagreements and reaching workable outcomes between people or groups. Face-sensitive communication can reduce humiliation and make agreement easier.
Politeness theory: A framework explaining how language choices attend to social relationships and interpersonal needs. Explains how politeness strategies protect or threaten face.
Line (sociology): A pattern of verbal and nonverbal acts through which a person expresses an understanding of a situation. A person’s line presents the image that face depends on.
Self-esteem: A person’s evaluation of their own worth or value. Face is socially negotiated in encounters; self-esteem concerns a person’s self-evaluation.
Workplace communication: The exchange of information and meaning among people in organizational settings. Feedback and authority can threaten face when workplace roles are unequal.
Face-threatening act: An action or utterance that risks damaging someone’s social image or freedom of action. Identifies the interactional moves that put face at risk.
Dignity: The inherent worth of a person, often expressed through claims to respect and humane treatment. Face concerns socially recognized dignity rather than worth alone.