Withholding advice for rapport management in online medical counselling interactions

Abstract This paper investigates how male and female doctors manage rapport by withholding advice in online medical counselling interactions. Data were collected from 60 doctors’ replies in response to web users’ advice-seeking inquiries on the Chinese health care website ‘ Good Doctor Online ’. From a comparative perspective, the study examined the use of two advice withholding strategies for rapport management — challenging a patient and parading expertise. The findings show that (1) both male and female doctors use the strategies to mitigate their authoritative force and empower patients with autonomy; and (2) female doctors tend to get the patients more involved in the interaction, while male doctors remain relatively more authoritative in accounting for their withholding behaviour. This research contributes to the study of health communication and extends the investigation of advice withholding from general discussions into a comparative analysis.