... used to describe the psychological conflict of approaching a question, only to find that every potential answer would result in similarly compromising consequences. Bavelas et al (1990) argue that equivocation is not a characteristic of a particular type of personality, but of a particular type of discourse, and that the pressures of a political interview lend themselves to these conflicts (Bull, 1998). Bull and Mayer's 1993 microanalysis of eight interviews with Margaret Thatcher and eight with Neil Kinnock showed the two politicians to have directly answered only 41 and 44 per cent of questions posed, respectively. This supported Harris' (1991) earlier research, in which the same politicians answered 39 per cent of the time, suggesting that certainly in terms of interviews with these politicians, equivocation is prevalent. In order to illustrate why equivocation is such a distinctive feature of political discourse, many researchers have offered examples of avoidance-avoidance conflicts, ...

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