These two sentences change everything.
Do you ever worry, when you share your political opinion, that other people feel you’re not listening to theirs?
As the inaugural McGurn Fellow at the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications, I was thrilled and honored to conduct some research on one piece of that puzzle…
In the studies we ran, we learned that the presence of two sentences in conversations about abortion and homelessness made all the difference:
“I want to hear from you. What do you think?”
When a person added those two sentences — that invitation — in a two-way conversation, subjects both felt more heard AND were more likely to want to talk politics again in the future.
And all this happened whether the subjects agreed or disagreed with the position of the speaker.
Which was pretty wild.
The full paper from UF is called "Why do you feel that way? Elaboration questions and feeling heard in political talk.” Intrigued? You can download it here.
This was fascinating work, and I want to give a big shoutout to the brilliant UF researchers who did all the work. Especially Brittany Shaughnessy, Myiah Hutchens, and Janet Coats, who taught me loads about how rigorous experiments use some people’s curiosity to extend everyone’s knowledge.
One invitation at a time.
Stay curious, all
