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  • October 2022
  • Article
  • Current Opinion in Psychology

When Listening Is Spoken

By: Hanne Collins
  • Format:Print
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Abstract

Feeling heard is critical to human flourishing—across domains, relationships are strengthened and individual well-being is enhanced when people feel listened to. High-quality conversational listening not only requires the cognitive processes of attention and processing, but also behavioral expression to communicate one's cognitive engagement to others. This need to behaviorally express listening introduces the possibility of deception. Listening can be expressed using non-verbal, paralinguistic, and verbal behaviors. However, recent work reveals that perceptions of conversational listening are often inaccurate—dishonest portrayals of listening often go undetected, while honest portrayals are sometimes mistaken for deception. This article will review work on listening, arguing that honest high-quality conversational listening is most effectively conveyed (and detected) using verbal expressions of listening, in part because these cues cannot be faked.

Keywords

Listening; Interpersonal Communication; Perception; Behavior

Citation

Collins, Hanne. "When Listening Is Spoken." Special Issue on Honesty and Deception edited by Maurice E. Schweitzer, Emma Levine. Current Opinion in Psychology 47 (October 2022).
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More from the Author
  • Relational Diversity in Social Portfolios Predicts Well-Being By: Hanne K. Collins, Serena F. Hagerty, Jordi Quoidbach, Michael I. Norton and Alison Wood Brooks
  • Underestimating Counterparts' Learning Goals Impairs Conflictual Conversations By: Hanne K. Collins, Charles A. Dorison, Francesca Gino and Julia A. Minson
  • Joy and Rigor in Behavioral Science By: Hanne K. Collins, Ashley V. Whillans and Leslie K. John
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