Not worth my time! Understanding factors that make conversations engaging

Humans spend significant time engaged in conversation, yet the amount of time we choose to invest in a particular interaction depends on how much we value it and find it rewarding. Here, we investigated whether the way speakers express themselves to convey a positive relational stance influences listeners’ perceived social value of a conversation. Untrained speakers enacted a series of boring or interesting conversational anecdotes in two distinct tones: a neutral tone and an “engaging” tone designed to foster positive interpersonal outcomes. An independent participant sample then indicated how much time they would be willing to spend in each conversation as a novel index of perceived reward value (“time bidding”) and rated the speakers across key social evaluative dimensions. Engaging speech was marked by higher pitch, increased loudness, greater loudness variability, and brighter voice. Listeners rated engaging speakers as friendlier, more competent, and more attractive, revealing the robust effect of vocal stance on one’s social appeal. Moreover, while semantic content had the strongest influence on time-bidding behavior, relational stance also contributed significantly, suggesting that interactions with engaging speakers are perceived as more rewarding. This study links vocal relational communication and social value perception, highlighting their roles in successful social interaction.