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Published on: October 13, 2018
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Spoken disagreement is more constructive than written disagreement
Burint Bevis1, Juliana Schroeder2, Michael Yeomans3
1Department of Management and Entrepreneurship, Imperial Business School, Imperial College London, London, UK. b.bevis20@imperial.ac.uk.
Nature Communications
|April 27, 2026
Summary
Spoken disagreements foster greater understanding and less conflict than written ones. People may mistakenly believe writing is more constructive, but speech promotes better outcomes and receptiveness.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Communication Studies
- Social Science
Background:
- Global polarization necessitates effective conflict resolution strategies.
- The medium of communication (spoken vs. written) may influence disagreement outcomes.
- Understanding how to disagree constructively is crucial for societal cohesion.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether spoken or written disagreement leads to more constructive outcomes.
- To explore the role of conversational receptiveness in mediating disagreement outcomes.
- To examine how individuals perceive the effectiveness of different communication mediums for disagreement.
Main Methods:
- Conducted a series of randomized experiments involving 1,576 conversation partners.
- Analyzed 1,842 conversations and observations from 1,432 individuals.
- Utilized linguistic analysis to measure conversational receptiveness and other outcome variables.
Main Results:
- Spoken conversations resulted in greater understanding, lower conflict, and more favorable impressions compared to written ones.
- Conversational receptiveness, a measure of openness to opposing views, was higher in spoken disagreements and partly explained the positive effects.
- Individuals tend to misjudge the effectiveness of communication mediums, often preferring written disagreement despite its less constructive outcomes.
Conclusions:
- Spoken communication is a more effective medium for constructive disagreement than written communication.
- Interventions aimed at increasing conversational receptiveness may enhance disagreement outcomes, particularly in written formats.
- Public perception regarding the efficacy of spoken versus written disagreement needs correction to promote healthier conflict resolution.
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