Tested J. Searle's (1965, 1969) suggestion that certain conditions must hold true for a promise to be successfully made. Intuitions regarding these pragmatic conditions were examined in 4 experiments by looking at how 120 undergraduates made and understood promises. The results show that the conditions of speaker's obligation to perform and addressee's desire for performance were extremely important to maintain if a promise was to be made or understood. It appears that people can make promises about actions that would be performed in the normal course of events. It is argued that promises do not by themselves obligate a speaker, but are used to reaffirm previously existing, and often unstated, obligations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)