The power of pausing in collaborative conversations

Abstract

Communicators benefit from being perceived as helpful in collaborative conversations. While research has found that actions preceding such conversations can impact how communicators are perceived, less is known about how speaking style shapes such perceptions. Might how communicators talk (i.e., how often they pause) influence how helpful they seem? Though speakers who spend more time in silence while talking are often perceived negatively, we suggest that brief pauses while speaking can be beneficial. Specifically, we argue that pausing encourages verbal assents from conversation partners (e.g., “yeah” or “uh-huh”), which leads them to perceive speakers more positively. A multi-method study of collaborative conversations, including an analysis of customer service calls and two experiments manipulating pause frequency, supports this account. Although long silences can have impression management drawbacks, our findings indicate that, in collaborative conversations, brief pauses while speaking can make a person seem more helpful because they encourage conversation partners to assent.