The artful dodger: answering the wrong question the right way

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Communication Studies
• Social Psychology

Background:

• Conversational norms, like Gricean maxims, guide expected speaker behavior.
• Listeners may prioritize social evaluation over critical question-answering assessment.
• The phenomenon of

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate listener detection of "artful dodges" where speakers answer similar but incorrect questions.
• To explore the role of attentional goals (social evaluation vs. dodge detection) in this phenomenon.
• To examine the interpersonal consequences of successful and unsuccessful dodge attempts.

Main Methods:

• Four studies were conducted involving participants evaluating speakers who either answered questions directly or employed "artful dodges".
• Experimental manipulations altered listener attention, focusing it on social evaluation or question relevance.
• Stimuli varied in the dissimilarity of the answered question to the original question and speaker fluency.

Main Results:

• Listeners frequently failed to detect dodges when speakers answered similar, incorrect questions.
• Dodge detection increased when listener attention was directed towards question relevance or away from social evaluation.
• Speakers who successfully dodged and appeared fluent were rated more positively than those answering directly but disfluently.

Conclusions:

• Listener attention and attentional goals significantly influence the detection of question dodging.
• The tendency to prioritize social evaluation can lead to a failure to identify deceptive communication tactics.
• Findings have implications for understanding interpersonal communication, public discourse, and the dynamics of persuasion.