Naturalistic control of conversation by meal: induction of attentive listening attitude through uneven meal distribution in co-dining

Abstract

Having a meal with conversation is regarded to have good effects. However, all the existing research assumed that all the participants have meals, whereas this assumption is not always true in reality. Conversation often takes place where a part of the participants have meals. To better understand co-dining conversation, we should also pay attention to this uneven meal distribution setting. Thus this research investigated face-to-face dyadic conversation on uneven meal distribution setting, focused on the difference between the participant with meal and the one without meal in particular. Conversation scenes that one participant has a meal were videotaped, and questionnaires were asked to fill out. From the analysis, it was found that attentive listening was often likely to emerge in uneven meal distribution setting.