title: Talking Less during Social Interactions Predicts Enjoyment: A Mobile Sensing Pilot Study.
abstract: Can we predict which conversations are enjoyable without hearing the words that are spoken? A total of 36 participants used a mobile app, My Social Ties, which collected data about 473 conversations that the participants engaged in as they went about their daily lives. We tested whether conversational properties (conversation length, rate of turn taking, proportion of speaking time) and acoustical properties (volume, pitch) could predict enjoyment of a conversation. Surprisingly, people enjoyed their conversations more when they spoke a smaller proportion of the time. This pilot study demonstrates how conversational properties of social interactions can predict psychologically meaningful outcomes, such as how much a person enjoys the conversation. It also illustrates how mobile phones can provide a window into everyday social experiences and well-being.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada.
authors.forename: Gillian M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Sandstrom
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., United States of America.
authors.forename: Vincent Wen-Sheng
authors.initials: VW
authors.lastname: Tseng
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., United States of America.
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., United States of America.
authors.forename: Fabian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Okeke
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., United States of America.
authors.forename: Tanzeem
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Choudhury
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada.
authors.forename: Elizabeth W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Dunn
mesh_terms: D040421:Cell Phone; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D010865:Pilot Projects; D055815:Young Adult