The "Opener"

Abstract

High or low "openers " (ie., persons who are more or less adept at eliciting self-disclosures) interviewed partners who themselves differed on the opener dimension to test the hypothesis that interview outcomes depend on both the interviewer's and the interviewee's standing on this attribute. As expected, high-opener interviewers were the more proficient at eliciting self-disclosures only when questioning low-opener interviewees, and socially unskilled, low-opener interviewers were quite successful at inducing high (but not low-) opener interviewees to talk about themselves. Supplementary data suggested that socially skilled, high-opener interviewees had a salutary influence on low-opener interviewers, relaxing these otherwise tense interrogators, who then took greater interest in their partners, thereby persuading them to self-disclose. A practical implication of these findings is discussed.