Cautions: Self-report only · No later follow-up
Pairs of strangers who took turns asking progressively more personal questions felt closer afterwards than pairs who made small talk. This is the research behind the “36 questions”.
Active ingredients
Which parts of the practice do the work: present-moment attention, disclosure, or hearing how you affect others?
Circling bundles elements that each have their own research literature. Taking them apart would connect the practice to established mechanisms.
Builds on ten works
Why it matters
Circling combines present-moment attention, self-disclosure and moment-to-moment feedback about how people affect one another. Structured self-disclosure (Aron et al., 1997) and partner contemplation (Kok & Singer, 2017; Matthaeus et al., 2024) already have experimental support, and Ludwig et al. (2025) shows how to test one ingredient against a stripped-down version of the same exercise. Knowing which element matters tells facilitators what to protect, and researchers which theories apply.
A possible design
A factorial lab study of short structured sessions that switch elements on or off: present-moment reporting against narrative storytelling, with and without reflections of impact. Outcomes: closeness, measured with the Inclusion of Other in the Self scale, and feeling understood.
Pitfalls
A stripped-down lab version may lose what makes the practice what it is. Pair the experiment with practitioners who can say whether each condition still feels like Circling.
Builds on
- 1997The Experimental Generation of Interpersonal Closeness: A Procedure and Some Preliminary Findings
- 2017Effects of Contemplative Dyads on Engagement and Perceived Social Connectedness Over 9 Months of Mental Training: A Randomized Clinical Trial
Cautions: Studied by its developers · No later follow-up
In a nine-month contemplative training, structured partner exercises engaged people as well as solitary meditation did, and their sense of social closeness grew.
- 2024Reducing Loneliness through the Power of Practicing Together: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Online Dyadic Socio-Emotional vs. Mindfulness-Based Training
Cautions: Studied by its developers · Commercial interest · Same study as another entry · Self-report only · No later follow-up
Ten weeks of online partner practice (Affect Dyads) reduced loneliness compared with a waitlist. Against mindfulness training, the advantage showed only in momentary, everyday loneliness.
- 2025Synchronous Smiles and Hearts: Dyadic Meditations Enhance Closeness and Prosocial Behavior in Virtual and In-Person Settings
Cautions: No later follow-up
Two minutes of a partner meditation, gazing at each other while contemplating shared humanity, raised closeness by about one standard deviation, and partners’ smiles and heart rates fell into sync.
- 1996On Dialogue
For noticing how a group creates meaning and gets stuck: suspending assumptions so they can be examined rather than defended or suppressed.
- 1978Focusing
For contact with your own experience: the “felt sense”, an unclear bodily sense of a whole situation from which more precise meaning can emerge.
- 2023Connection Heals Wounds: Feeling Listened to Reduces Speakers’ Loneliness Following a Social Rejection Disclosure
Cautions: Self-report only · No later follow-up
Five experiments found that attentive, understanding listening reduced immediate loneliness when people discussed or imagined discussing a past rejection.
- 2020Reducing Exclusionary Attitudes through Interpersonal Conversation: Evidence from Three Field Experiments
Cautions: Self-report only
Three field experiments found small, persistent reductions in exclusionary attitudes after conversations that included a non-judgemental exchange of personal stories.
- 2003The social consequences of expressive suppression.
Cautions: Small sample · No later follow-up
Two experiments with women who had just met found that suppressing emotional expression disrupted the conversation, reduced rapport and raised the partners’ blood pressure.
- 2012Beyond the myth of venting: Social sharing modes determine the benefits of emotional disclosure
Cautions: Small sample · Self-report only
An experiment found that supportive listening increased immediate closeness, while helping speakers rethink an upsetting film reduced their reaction to it two days later.