SPEECH CONVERGENCE AND SPEECH EVALUATION IN FACTFINDING INTERVIEWS Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • The purpose of this study was to examine speech convergence and speech evaluation in factfinding interviews conducted in the field. Forty interviewers (ERs), undergraduates enrolled in a class on interviewing processes, conducted 2030 minute interviews with selected interviewees (EEs), business persons and professionals in fields of interest to the ERs. Speech behaviors examined included response latency, speech rate, and turn duration; these were coded per one minute intervals of each interaction. Time series regression procedures indicated that both ERs and EEs converged speech rate and response latency toward their interlocutors' performances of these behaviors. Although turn duration convergence did not characterize the entire data set, malemale dyads did converge significantly and male (ER)female (EE) dyads significantly diverged turn duration. Regarding speech evaluation, there was some evidence that greater response latency similarity, greater speech rate and response latency convergence, and faster ER speech and slower EE speech were positively related to the competence and social attractiveness judgments of participants. Limitations and implications are discussed. Copyright 1984, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved

published proceedings

  • Human Communication Research

altmetric score

  • 8

author list (cited authors)

  • STREET, R. L.

citation count

  • 119

complete list of authors

  • STREET, RICHARD L

publication date

  • December 1984