Standardization vs. Rapport: Respondent laughter and Interviewer Reaction during Telephone Surveys

Abstract

Laughter emerges naturally in interaction. In the context of the telephone survey interview, however, laughter threatens standardization. Consequently, some survey research centers prohibit interviewers from laughing during the administration of surveys. The data for this study are recorded telephone interviews from one such survey research center. How interviewers handle the “laughter invitations” of respondents is analyzed. Because these interviewers are not taught what to do when laughter occurs, they rely on their tacit knowledge, either accepting the invitation, declining it, or engaging in “pseudo-laughter”: Interviewers most often decline or use a pseudo-laughing response. Laughter patterns in a survey research center that does not prohibit interviewer laughter are examined for comparison, and generally much more reciprocation and laughter are observed. Respondent laughter exhibits a central tension in the telephone survey interview: How can interviewers maintain both standardization and an appropriately affiliative social relationship with respondents? The differential management of this tension is explored in terms of survey methodology, the sociology of (social) scientific knowledge, and the organization of talk in institutional settings.

Leaders laughing in the line of fire: An emotional aperture perspective on leader laughter in response to critical questions.

“…Drawing on this key insight from the emotional aperture literature, we propose that witnessing followers consider both the leader’s and the questioner’s laughter when assessing the leader’s warmth because the emerging pattern of laughter between the leader and the critical questioner helps them discern the intent of the leader’s laughter. Qualitative research on laughter in social interactions shows that laughter tends to exhibit different patterns within social interactions (e.g., Adelswärd & Öberg, 1998; Glenn, 2003, 2010; Holt, 2010; Jefferson, 1979; Kangasharju & Nikko, 2009; Lavin & Maynard, 2001). Scholars contend that affiliative laughter tends to be shared within an interaction (Jefferson, 1979), a prediction confirmed by findings in the field of conversational analysis that have found one person’s affiliative laughter is almost immediately joined by another person’s laughter during interactions (Adelswärd & Öberg, 1998; Kangasharju & Nikko, 2009).…”