The Conversational Circumplex: Identifying, prioritizing, and pursuing informational and relational motives in conversation

Yeomans, Michael; Schweitzer, Maurice E.; Brooks, Alison Wood

doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.10.001

Cited by 39 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 91 publications

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“…In the field, individuals instructed to interact with a stranger reported more positive experiences than those who were instructed to remain in solitude ( 18 , 27 ). In fact, recent work suggests that individuals discuss important topics with their weak ties more often than traditional network theory would predict ( 29 , 30 ) —especially in one-on-one conversation when relational stakes are lower ( 31 , 32 ). At the network level, weak ties play a critical role in bolstering one’s network, by serving as bridges that provide access to information and resources ( 20 – 24 ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Relational diversity in social portfolios predicts well-being

Collins

Hagerty

Quoidbach

et al. 2022

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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We document a link between the relational diversity of one’s social portfolio—the richness and evenness of relationship types across one’s social interactions—and well-being. Across four distinct samples, respondents from the United States who completed a preregistered survey ( n = 578), respondents to the American Time Use Survey ( n = 19,197), respondents to the World Health Organization’s Study on Global Aging and Adult Health ( n = 10,447), and users of a French mobile application ( n = 21,644), specification curve analyses show that the positive relationship between social portfolio diversity and well-being is robust across different metrics of well-being, different categorizations of relationship types, and the inclusion of a wide range of covariates. Over and above people’s total amount of social interaction and the diversity of activities they engage in, the relational diversity of their social portfolio is a unique predictor of well-being, both between individuals and within individuals over time.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Relational diversity in social portfolios predicts well-being

Collins

Hagerty

Quoidbach

et al. 2022

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Other studies have found that brief conversations can durably improve intergroup attitudes when one conversation partner is trained in specific conversational techniques [e.g., ( 17 )]. For example, might approaches for making others feel listened to [e.g., ( 37 )] or being more receptive [e.g., ( 38 , 39 )] make the conversations more impactful or memorable? Might different approaches to fostering deliberation [e.g., ( 40 )] produce longer-lasting effects?…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The promise and pitfalls of cross-partisan conversations for reducing affective polarization: Evidence from randomized experiments

Santoro

Broockman

2022

Sci. Adv.

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Organizations, activists, and scholars hope that conversations between outpartisans (supporters of opposing political parties) can reduce affective polarization (dislike of outpartisans) and bolster democratic accountability (e.g., support for democratic norms). We argue that such conversations can reduce affective polarization but that these effects are likely to be conditional on topic, being especially likely if the conversations topics avoid discussion of areas of disagreement; usually not persist long-term; and be circumscribed, not affecting attitudes toward democratic accountability. We support this argument with two unique experiments where we paired outpartisan strangers to discuss randomly assigned topics over video calls. In study 1, we found that conversations between outpartisans about their perfect day dramatically decreased affective polarization, although these impacts decayed long-term. Study 2 also included conversations focusing on disagreement (e.g., why each supports their own party), which had no effects. Both studies found little change in attitudes related to democratic accountability.

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“…Hence, we do not know the extent to which turn-taking and repair actually rid conversations of systematic misunderstandings. In fact, there is evidence that interlocutors are blind to conversational incoherence (Galantucci & Roberts, 2014), show content deafness (Galantucci et al, 2018), and have difficulty in discerning others’ conversational motives (Yeomans et al, 2021). Moreover, some experiments that involved conversations showed a high level of egocentrism in understanding (Keysar et al, 1998; Keysar et al, 2003), and a field study showed pervasive miscommunication even in high-stakes conversation between physicians (Chang et al, 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When people communicate, they can have different goals, such as to influence (e.g., Cialdini, 2021), to manage face (e.g., Goffman, 1967; Holtgraves, 1998), to develop relationships, to convey information (Yeomans et al, 2021), and so on. For each of these goals “success” is evaluated differently.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The extreme illusion of understanding.

Lau¹,

Geipel²,

Wu³

et al. 2022

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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Though speakers and listeners monitor communication success, they systematically overestimate it. We report an extreme illusion of understanding that exists even without shared language. Native Mandarin Chinese speakers overestimated how well native English-speaking Americans understood what they said in Chinese, even when they were informed that the listeners knew no Chinese. These listeners also believed they understood the intentions of the Chinese speakers much more than they actually did. This extreme illusion impacts theories of speech monitoring and may be consequential in real-life, where miscommunication is costly.

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The Conversational Circumplex: Identifying, prioritizing, and pursuing informational and relational motives in conversation

Cited by 39 publications

References 91 publications

Relational diversity in social portfolios predicts well-being

Relational diversity in social portfolios predicts well-being

The promise and pitfalls of cross-partisan conversations for reducing affective polarization: Evidence from randomized experiments

The extreme illusion of understanding.

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