Veiled Intentions

Why do people veil obvious intentions in day to day speech:

RSA Animate is a project to create interesting animated videos out of equally interesting talks about the field of psychology and other such fields. For behavioral economists this video has incredible insight into "the three major human relationships": dominance, communality, and reciprocity. Each of these relationships call for different types of social interaction. The way a person speaks to a boss is quite different from how they speak to a friend.

Innuendos are easier to deal with than direct statements. We are more comfortable with both using them and receiving them. This comfortability comes with the notion that anything that is said outright cannot be taken back. As soon as someone makes a blatant statement it is out there, in the open, and cannot be undone. With a veiled statement, even one that has obvious intentions, there is the feeling that it can be forgotten. The true meaning is not out in the open, and even if the request or notion is rejected then the relationship between the people involved will not be compromised.

As far as practical applications go, we do this sort of thing without even noticing. We modify our behavior to fit the situations we find ourselves in. Foot-in-the-door and door-in-the-face techniques are quite similar. We naturally seek to optimize our chances of successful social interaction. We try to avoid awkwardness and do so by blanketing our statements to reduce possible backlash. We might be better off going around speaking metaphorically and veiling our statements always. But then again, that might make everyday interactions fairly annoying.