Conversational blindness
Subtitle: answering the wrong question the right way
By: Todd Rogers, Michael I. Norton
Contributors: Norton, Michael I., 1975-; Harvard Business School
Series: Working paper / Harvard Business School -- 09-048; Working paper (Harvard Business School) -- 09-048
Publisher: Harvard Business School
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 16
Description: What happens when people try to "dodge" a question they would rather not answer by answering a different question? Two experiments demonstrated conversational blindness—listeners' surprising failure to notice such dodges—and explored the interpersonal consequences of this phenomenon. Listeners viewed successful question-dodgers as positively as speakers who actually answered the question they are asked, but were not blind to all efforts to dodge: They both noticed—and punished—particularly egregious attempts (Study 1). More troublingly, listeners preferred speakers who answered the wrong question well over those who answered the right question poorly (Study 2).
Notes: "September 2008"--Publisher's web site.

Includes bibliographical references.