Listening and perceived responsiveness: Unveiling the significance and exploring crucial research endeavors
Abstract
Abstract
Listening and perceived responsiveness evoke a sense of
interpersonal connection that benefits individuals and groups
and is relevant to almost every field in Psychology, Management, Education, Communication, and Health, to name a few.
In this paper, we, researchers who have devoted their careers
to studying listening (first author) and perceived responsiveness (second author), address the necessity of integrating the
two constructs. Moreover, we offer several questions for future
research that we believe are crucial to produce a more profound and comprehensive understanding of this important
process. These research questions include empirical issues,
cross-cultural and inter-racial interactions, age differences, the
emergence of new technologies, and opportunities to bridge
political, ethnic, and social divides. By highlighting the undeniable impact of listening and perceived responsiveness on
interpersonal connection across diverse domains, we emphasize the need to integrate these constructs in future research.
Our proposed set of eight pivotal research questions is intended as a starting point for gaining a deeper and more holistic
understanding of this critical study area while building a strong
empirical foundation for interventions. By addressing these
questions, we can foster meaningful advances that have the
potential to bridge gaps, improve relationships, and enhance
the well-being of individuals and communities alike.
Attitudes in an interpersonal context: Psychological safety as a route to attitude change
Guy Itzchakov, Kenneth G. DeMarree
Attitudes
Interpersonal contexts can be complex because they can involve two or more
people who are interdependent, each of whom is pursuing both individual
and shared goals. Interactions consist of individual and joint behaviors
that evolve dynamically over time. Interactions are likely to affect people’s
attitudes because the interpersonal context gives conversation partners a
great deal of opportunity to intentionally or unintentionally influence each
other.
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Can high quality listening predict lower speakers' prejudiced attitudes?
Guy Itzchakov, Netta Weinstein, Nicole Legate, Moty Amar
Listening
Theorizing from humanistic and motivational literature suggests attitude change may occur because high-quality listening facilitates the insight needed to explore and integrate potentially threatening information relevant to the self. By extension, self-insight may enable attitude change as a result of conversations about prejudice. We tested whether high-quality listening would predict attitudes related to speakers' prejudices and whether self-insight would mediate this effect. Study 1 (preregistered) examined scripted conversations characterized by high, regular, and poor listening quality. In Study 2, we manipulated high versus regular listening quality in the laboratory as speakers talked about their prejudiced attitudes. Finally, Study 3 (preregistered) used a more robust measure of prejudiced attitudes to testing whether perceived social acceptance could be an alternative explanation to Study 2 findings. Across these studies, the exploratory (pilot study and Study 2) and confirmatory (Studies 1 & 3) findings were in line with expectations that high, versus regular and poor, quality listening facilitated lower prejudiced attitudes because it increased self-insight. A meta-analysis of the studies (N = 952) showed that the average effect sizes for high-quality listening (vs. comparison conditions) on self-insight, openness to change and prejudiced attitudes were, ds = 1.19, 0.46, 0.32 95%CIs [0.73, 1.51], [0.29, 0.63] [0.12, 0.53], respectively. These results suggest that when having conversations about prejudice, high-quality listening modestly shapes prejudice following conversations about it, and underscores the importance of self-insight and openness to change in this process.
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