Circling Science

The Liking Gap in Conversations: Do People Like Us More Than We Think?

Erica J. Boothby, Gus Cooney, Gillian M. Sandstrom and Margaret S. Clark · 2018

Evidence
Experiment
Kind
Journal article
peer-reviewed
Method
Five conversation studies, including observer ratings, a student cohort and a randomised accuracy incentive
Sample
US and UK samples, including 102 first-year students followed across an academic year
Published
Psychological Science, 29(11), 1742–1756

Adjacent

Studies a related practice or mechanism, without testing Circling.

Across five studies, people tended to underestimate how much conversation partners liked them, and this gap lasted for months among student housemates.

What it doesn’t show

Most evidence compares perceived liking with partners’ reported liking rather than testing an intervention. The longitudinal student study contained missing survey items and assessed a particular residential setting. An average gap does not mean that every person or every conversation is judged more favourably than expected.

Summary based on the abstract and the open manuscript’s study methods, results and discussion.

Links

Cite

Boothby, E. J., Cooney, G., Sandstrom, G. M., & Clark, M. S. (2018). The Liking Gap in Conversations: Do People Like Us More Than We Think? Psychological Science, 29(11), 1742–1756. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797618783714