Abstract
We examined how merely sharing attitudes with a good listener shapes speakers’ attitudes. We predicted that high-quality (i.e., empathic, attentive, and nonjudgmental) listening reduces speakers’ social anxiety and leads them to delve deeper into their attitude-relevant knowledge (greater self-awareness). This, subsequently, differentially affects two components of speaker’s attitude certainty by increasing attitude clarity, but not attitude correctness. In addition, we predicted that this increased clarity is followed by increased attitude-expression intentions, but not attitude-persuasion intentions. We obtained consistent support for our hypotheses across five experiments (including one preregistered study), manipulating listening behavior in a variety of ways. This is the first evidence that an interpersonal variable, unrelated to the attitude itself, can affect attitude clarity and its consequences.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 762-778 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| Journal | Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1 May 2018 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by a grant from Ono Academic College to the first author and grants from the Recanati Fund at the School of Business Administration, and by the Israel Science Foundation (928/17) to the third author.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, © 2018 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
Keywords
- advocacy intentions
- attitude certainty
- attitude clarity
- listening
- self-awareness
- social anxiety
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Psychology