The Reasons The Create Good Conversations
The psychology behind any good conversation boils down to a series of agreements behaviors and habits which combined create a good communicational experience.
Conversation rests on, first and foremost, an agreement to cooperate. People implicitly consent to work together to be mutually understood. The idea that successful communication requires us to follow and, crucially, recognize certain culturally absorbed conventions was first articulated by British philosopher of language Paul Grice in the 1970s. (Psychology Today Contributors, 2023)
In observing the so-called cooperative principles, we seem to follow some basic ground rules, which Grice termed “conversational maxims” that help us figure out what to infer from what people say and how they say it.
... a speaker’s personality, status, and social background influence whether and how much someone will adjust their speech to match those they are talking with. Those with more interest in social approval and who have higher levels of agreeableness and self-consciousness generally modify their conversation more than those who do not score high on such scales. Those of high status accommodate less, as do people of dissimilar backgrounds.
Speakers also unconsciously adjust loudness, pitch, syntax, and speech rate to match those they talk to, and they can even converge on phonetic characteristics
In the article, it lays out the basics of making good conversations using psychology to make sense of the various habits people tend to pick up on. First impressions are based largely on how you look and then how you speak. If you do not communicate yourself well it could turn on conversation into a bad look on you.
In a society where looks are just as important as skill, knowing how and why people would want to talk with you if key to being able to advance. And through understanding the psychology principals, you can make any conversation work the way you want it to. These principals can also be designed, where products with utilize them in order to mediate good conversation.
References
Psychology Today Contributors, (May 19, 2023). The Art and Science of Great Conversations. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/202305/the-art-and-science-of-great-conversations
Cristina Spano, (May 19, 2023). The Art and Science of Great Conversations. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/202305/the-art-and-science-of-great-conversations
