Many Labs Learning to Listen

Some of the greatest thinkers on spirituality, human growth, and flourishing have argued that listeningwell to others is a keystone of constructive communication and deep social connection (e.g.,humanism, 1; religion, spirituality, 2). High-quality listening behaviors that convey attention, caring,and understanding can increase willingness to engage in open dialogue because they reducedefensiveness and foster open-mindeness in response to threatening new information. Such listeningmay hold power to build mutual understanding that bridges divides and reduces polarization (3,4).Despite a history of remarkable theorists espousing the merits of listening for open and constructivesocial interactions, relatively little rigorous empirical attention has been given to examining thisconstruct (for example, as compared to research on speaking; 5), and even less so to understandinglistening as a cross-cultural phenomenon that might influence the impact of conversations takingplace globally. In this project, we seek to increase the understanding of listening in the field ofpsychology by conducting research across multiple labs and countries. We will explore culturaldifferences and investigate the universal human processes underlying effective listening.Specifically, five labs working collaboratively will focus on the expression and experience oflistening as a behavior and its downstream impacts on depolarization processes that moderateextreme, rigid, and narrow-minded views (6,7). The first stages of the research will yield importantinsights in their own right, and will ultimately lead to an ambitious capstone experiment that examineslistening and depolarization across our labs. By doing so, we will build a foundation to guide futureresearch on listening across life’s conversation (e.g., politics) and domains (e.g., workplace). Theultimate goal for the field is to gain a comprehensive understanding of the nature and impacts oflistening on speakers across the globe.Paralleling these scientific efforts, we have a meta-scientific goal to learn to listen to one another; Todevelop a process for conducting participatory research that grounds insights in the cultural contextthrough regular efforts towards listening and learning between our lab partners. From theseexperiences, we will develop a protocol, best practices, and practical resources for such participatorycollaboration, and work through the challenges of balancing researcher autonomy across labs withrobust research practices in cross-cultural open research collaboration. The proposed research,conducted through mixed-methods open research in Hong Kong, Israel, Peru, Turkey, and the UnitedKingdom, will stretch the capability of open science methods seeing as it will unfold dynamicallyover time.Ultimately, our scientific (modeling listening through research) and meta-scientific (modeling howresearchers can listen to one another) contributions should result in a richer understanding ofinterpersonal listening in conversations and an improved understanding of how collaborative openresearch can be conducted in culturally embedded and robust cross-cultural research. This knowledgecan be applied in experimental philosophy, human communication, political science, and otherdiscplines to stretch existing models of dialogue and its impacts across cross-cultural contexts.