When People “Click” They Respond Faster in a Conversation

The more connected people feel toward each other, the quicker they are to respond to one another in a conversation, and conversation leads to a bond.

Understanding How Conversation ‘Clicking’ Is Reflected in Response Times

When two people are on the same page during a conversation, generally their minds simply “click.” A Dartmouth study demonstrates that “clicking” is more than just a figure of speech; it depends on response times in a conversation, or the time between when one person stops talking and the other begins.

The analysis consisted of three studies. The first one examined response time and social connection between strangers. Sixty-six participants took part in 10 conversations, each with a unique conversation partner of a similar gender. They could discuss any topic of their choosing, and we videotaped their conversation.

After the conversation ended, participants watched the recorded video and rated their feelings of connection moment by moment. Quicker response times correlated with a greater sense of social connection.

To determine if this result also applied to close friends, the primary study participants and their close friends had conversations during a second study. Though close friends rated their conversations more favourably overall than strangers, the response time information were similar. Quicker response times in friend conversations also predicted moments of larger social connection.

To determine if outside observers also use response times to gauge when two people “click,” researchers had respondents from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk listen to audio clips of conversations with altered response times: quicker, slower, or at the original speed (control condition). The study aimed to verify this observation across different listeners.

Observers saw greater connection between speakers with quicker response times, aligning with earlier studies on engagement. This study shows that response times alone can be a powerful signal of social connection in identical clips.