Think about people who have split from their spouse fairly recently - say, within the past 4 months or so. If you listen to them talk about the break-up (just the sound - you don't get to see their facial expressions or body language), do you think you could tell how distressed they are and how preoccupied they are with thoughts of the break-up?
Now let's make your task more difficult. Say you don't know these people at all, and you only get to listen to 30 seconds of them talking about their separation. Or maybe you only get to read a transcript of what they said in those 30 seconds - you don't get to hear tone of voice at all. Now do you think you can tell how upset they are? Can you tell, from listening to just 30 seconds now, how well-adjusted they will be in their single lives 3 months into the future?
What you can tell - as long as you get to hear tone of voice cues - is pretty amazing.
First, some details of the recently-published study. The people who had recently split from their spouse were 105 adults, with an average age of 40. They were recorded while they talked, in a stream-of-consciousness sort of way, about separating from their spouse. Transcripts were made of the recordings. Then, separate groups of college students either listened to the first 30 seconds of each person, or read a transcript of that half-minute.
For each divorced person they judged, the students answered questions such as
- How well is this person coping with his or her divorce?
- How much stress is this person experiencing about his or her divorce?
- How much is this person stuck on thoughts about the previous relationship?
Each of the divorced persons answered a standardized scale measuring the impact of the divorce on their lives. The items assessed physical symptoms, emotional experiences, and various avoidance behaviors. They answered these items about how they were doing at two different points in time: when they were first recruited for the study (which was when they were recorded talking about the split), and again 3 months later.
From just the 30 seconds of information, the students could tell who was coping the best at the moment when the divorced people were describing the break-up. So, the students' impressions of how well the individuals were doing correlated with the individuals' own reports of how well they were doing at the time. Even the students who only got to read a transcript of the 30 seconds could tell who was doing well and who was more stressed out.
Predicting the future was harder. Only the students who got to hear the tone of voice cues could tell how those people would do three months later. The students were not asked directly to predict future adjustment. Instead, the ratings they made as they listened to the tapes were correlated with changes in the divorced individuals' own reports of how well they were doing 3 months later.
The short version is this: If you listen to perfect strangers talk for 30 seconds about their recent split from their spouse, your impressions of how well they are doing are reasonably accurate. The people you perceive as the least stressed will also generally describe themselves as the least stressed. Plus, they will also describe themselves as the least stressed when asked again 3 months later.
This is part of a provocative area of research called "thin slices." Thirty seconds is just a thin slice of someone's behavior. Yet, sometimes we can discern something significant about a person from just that thin slice of their behavior.
The study also underscores something I learned from my studies of deception: tone of voice matters. Sometimes, what you can learn from a person from tuning in to their tone of voice is more than you can tell from just having access to their words (as in an email) or from watching a silent video clip in which you can see all of their facial expressions and body movements.
At the beginning of their article, the authors explained why they thought their study was important. We use our impressions of recently divorced people, they suggested, to figure out how much support to offer: "Should I visit him more often? Should I call her frequently?" Therefore, it is important to know whether our impressions are accurate.
Maybe I should stop right here but this study, together with our recent discussion of singles getting excluded, brought back some memories of my graduate school days. Some of my friends were coupled, and when their partner was away for a few days, the other couples would be sure to invite them to dinner or other social events so they wouldn't be "alone." So singles were included among couples as long as they were just single for a few days.
