For example, our social position increases the probability that we will talk to people in equal or adjacent positions and lowers the probability that we will communicate with those in different positions. People tend to stick to communicating with members of their own class, age group or job. There are working class pubs, middle class wine bars, student discos. The system determines the frequency of communication for individuals. There is a system style, a characteristic way in which members of a given system encode and decode messages.
Communication affects the social system and vice-versa.
Neither can be analysed separately without distorting the nature of the process. Knowledge of a social system can help us to make accurate predictions about people, without the necessity of empathising, without the necessity of interaction, without knowing anything about the people other than the r les that they have in the system. If we know what behaviours go with a r le, we can predict that those behaviours will be performed by people who perform that r le. If we know what behaviours go with a given rank or position, we can make predictions about people who occupy that position. Knowledge of the systems of which our receiver is a member helps us predict what she believes what she knows how she will behave in a given situation Another use of knowledge of the system is that it helps us select receivers in the first place.