This book examines attentiveness, which is briefly defined as a demonstrator's pre-emptive responses to a recipient's verbal or non-verbal cues or situations surrounding a recipient and a demonstrator, which takes the form of offering. It elucidates what attentiveness is, and addresses the importance of attentiveness in im/politeness research. It also suggests the importance of taking an interdisciplinary perspective in im/politeness research, the importance of non-linguistically manifested politeness and the heart perspective.

Evaluation by a recipient of attentiveness is considered since recent research suggests that im/politeness resides in evaluation. Thus, both demonstration and evaluation of attentiveness are investigated in the book. Attentiveness may be demonstrated or evaluated differently within different cultures. Generation can be considered as one of the sub-groups of culture. Therefore, cross-cultural and cross-generational comparisons on demonstration and evaluation of attentiveness are included.

Although some differences in demonstration or evaluation of attentiveness are found cross-culturally, similarities outweigh differences. This suggests that attentiveness, which is thought to be a virtue in Japanese culture, is not unique to Japanese culture, and that attentiveness is an important interpersonal notion elsewhere, too. It is also shown that attentiveness is one of the constituents of politeness, which indicates that attentiveness is closely related to politeness.