Cultural Similarities in Rapport Judgments of Silent Interactions

Abstract

Cross-cultural studies on rapport judgments have demonstrated considerable cultural similarities in those judgments. Previous research, however, asked observers in different countries to rate interviews conducted in their native and non-native languages; thus, language comprehension may have confounded the findings because observers could understand the verbal exchanges in interviews conducted in their native language but perhaps not others. To remedy this limitation, in this study, observers in two different observer culture/language groups rated rapport in silent interactions conducted in different languages. Findings replicated cultural similarities in a bidimensional structure of rapport judgments and in the patterns of those judgments across different segments of the interviews. The findings suggested that judgments obtained in previous studies may also have been made largely based on demeanor and not on the verbal exchange of the interactants.

Keywords

rapport interviews silent interactions

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bernieri

F. J.

Davis

J. M.

Rosenthal

Knee

C. R.

(1994). Interactional synchrony and rapport: Measuring synchrony in displays devoid of sound and facial affect. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20, 303–311. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167294203008

Bernieri

F. J.

Gillis

J. S.

(1995). The judgment of rapport: A cross-cultural comparison between Americans and Greeks. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 19(2), 115–130. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02173170

Bernieri

F. J.

Reznick

S. J.

Rosenthal

(1988). Synchrony, pseudosynchrony, and dissynchrony: Measuring the entrainment process in mother-infant interactions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(2), 243–253. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.54.2.243

Boyce

Parker

(1989). Development of a scale to measure interpersonal sensitivity. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 23(3), 341–351. https://doi.org/10.3109/00048678909068294

Buss

D. M.

(2001). Human nature and culture: An evolutionary psychological perspective. Journal of Personality, 69(6), 955–978. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6494.696171

Dutton

J. E.

Heaphy

E. D.

(2003). The power of high-quality connections. In Cameron

K. S.

Dutton

J. E.

Quinn

R. E.

(Eds.), Positive organizational scholarship: Foundations of a new discipline (pp. 263–278). Berrett-Koehler.

Grahe

J. E.

Bernieri

F. J.

(1999). The importance of nonverbal cues in judging rapport. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 23(4), 253–269. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021698725361

Grahe

J. E.

Bernieri

F. J.

(2002). Self-awareness of judgment policies of rapport. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28(10), 1407–1418. https://doi.org/10.1177/014616702236872

Matsumoto

Hwang

H. C.

(2021). An initial investigation into the nature and function of rapport in investigative interviews. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 35(4), 988–998. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3825

10.

Matsumoto

Juang

L. P.

(2023). Culture and psychology (7th ed.). Cengage Learning.

11.

Matsumoto

LeRoux

J. A.

Iwamoto

Choi

J. W.

Rogers

Tatani

Uchida

(2003). The robustness of the Intercultural Adjustment Potential Scale (ICAPS). International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 27, 543–562. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0147-1767(03)00053-1

12.

Matsumoto

Wilson

Helmy

Garcia

J. M. G.

Vasquez

A. N. A.

(2023). Cultural similarities and differences in judgments of rapport. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 55(2), 127–144. https://doi.org/10.1177/00220221231217710

13.

Nelson

A. A.

Grahe

J. E.

Ramseyer

(2016). Interacting in flow: An analysis of rapport-based behavior as optimal experience. Sage Open, 6(4), 2158244016684173. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244016684173

14.

Spencer-Oatey

(2002). Managing rapport in talk: Using rapport sensitive incidents to explore the motivational concerns underlying the management of relations. Journal of Pragmatics, 34(5), 529–545. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(01)00039-X

15.

Spencer-Oatey

(2005). Rapport management theory and culture. Intercultural Pragmatics, 2(3), 335. https://doi.org/10.1515/iprg.2005.2.3.335

16.

Spencer-Oatey

Jiang

(2003). Explaining cross-cultural pragmatic findings: Moving from politeness maxims to sociopragmatic interactional principles (SIPs). Journal of Pragmatics, 35(10), 1633–1650. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(03)00025-0

17.

Spencer-Oatey

Xing

(2003). Managing rapport in intercultural business interactions: A comparison of two Chinese-British welcome meetings. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 24(1), 33–46. https://doi.org/10.1080/07256860305788

18.

Tickle-Degnen

Rosenthal

(1987). Group rapport and nonverbal behavior. In Hendrick

(Ed.), Group processes and intergroup relations (pp. 113–136). Sage Publications.

19.

Tickle-Degnen

Rosenthal

(1990). The nature of rapport and its nonverbal correlates. Psychological Inquiry, 1(4), 285–293. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli0104_1

20.

Trout

D. L.

Rosenfeld

H. M.

(1980). The effect of postural lean and body congruence on the judgment of psychotherapeutic rapport. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 4(3), 176–190. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00986818

21.

Vacharkulksemsuk

Fredrickson

B. L.

(2012). Strangers in sync: Achieving embodied rapport through shared movements. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(1), 399–402. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2011.07.015

22.

Van de Vijver

F. J. R.

Leung

(2011). Equivalence and bias: A review of concepts, models, and data analytic procedures. In Matsumoto

Van de Vijver

F. J. R.

(Eds.), Cross-cultural research methods in psychology. Cambridge University Press.

23.

Van de Vijver

F. J. R.

Poortinga

Y. H.

(2002). Structural equivalence in multilevel research. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 33(2), 141–156. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022102033002002

24.

Wilson

Matsumoto

Avendano Vasquez

A. N.

Helmy

Garcia

J. M.

(2022). Social judgments of rapport in investigative interviews across cultures. Cross-Cultural Research, 56(5), 496–526. https://doi.org/10.1177/10693971221119944journals.sagepub.com/home/ccr

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.75 MB