I Am Aware of My Inconsistencies but Can Tolerate Them

Abstract

We examined how listeners characterized by empathy and a non-judgmental approach affect speakers' attitude structure. We hypothesized that high quality listening decreases speakers' social anxiety, which in turn reduces defensive processing. This reduction in defensive processing was hypothesized to result in an awareness of contradictions (increased objective-attitude ambivalence), and decreased attitude extremity. Moreover, we hypothesized that experiencing high quality listening would enable speakers to tolerate contradictory responses, such that listening would attenuate the association between objective- and subjective-attitude ambivalence. We obtained consistent support for our hypotheses across four laboratory experiments that manipulated listening experience in different ways on a range of attitude topics. The effects of listening on objective-attitude ambivalence were stronger for higher dispositional social anxiety and initial objective-attitude ambivalence (Study 4). Overall, the results suggest that speakers' attitude structure can be changed by a heretofore unexplored interpersonal variable: merely providing high quality listening.

Can high quality listening predict lower speakers' prejudiced attitudes?

“…Of importance to the present research is recent empirical evidence showing that lower defensiveness could account for the associations between high quality listening and (reduced) attitude extremity ( Itzchakov et al, 2017 ). However, this particular study did not examine negative attitudes such as prejudice.…”

“…In the interest of self-protection, while each party is talking, the other party is mulling counter-arguments that would win the argument. On the contrary, when individuals experience high quality listening, they become more open-minded and process information in a less defensive and self-serving manner ( Itzchakov et al, 2017 ).…”

“…It has been suggested that individuals must be willing to explore, recognize, and challenge their beliefs for their attitudes to change ( Zúñiga et al, 2002 ). High quality listening may be a key to this type of self-insight ( Itzchakov et al, 2017 ; Rogers, 1951 , Rogers, 1980 ). Recent work has found that a non-judgmental exchange of narratives in interpersonal conversations was more impactful in reducing exclusionary attitudes than providing arguments ( Kalla & Broockman, 2020 ).…”

“…We posited that high quality listening can influence prejudiced attitudes by allowing individuals to introspect in an open-minded manner on the views they hold without fear of judgment, thus making it easier to be open to changing or modifying attitudes. The hypotheses are informed by the humanistic approach of Carl Rogers ( Rogers, 1951 , Rogers, 1980 ), Self-Determination Theory ( Deci & Ryan, 2011 ), and the nascent high quality listening literature (e.g., Itzchakov et al, 2017 ; Van Quaquebeke & Felps, 2018 ). Overall, this literature converges on a definition of high quality listening as listening that offers empathy (an understanding of the speaker's point of view), interest-taking, and unconditional regard (caring for the speaker, independent of expressed content and a non-judgmental stance).…”

Mere listening effect on creativity and the mediating role of psychological safety.

“…This definition has the benefit of being a good reflection of a layperson's conceptualization of listening as reflected in the plea of "Listen to me!" Furthermore, it has regularly been used in previous research on listening (see Itzchakov, Kluger, & Castro, 2017). Thus, our definition describes listening as a multi-dimensional construct that has attention, understanding, and relational components (Bodie, 2012;Rogers & Roethlisberger, 1991/1952.…”