A Laboratory Study Comparing the Effectiveness of Verbal and Nonverbal Rapport-Building Techniques in Interviews

ABSTRACT

The relative and combined effectiveness of verbal versus nonverbal techniques in eliciting rapport during interviews is unknown. The effectiveness of one verbal and one nonverbal behavioral technique presumed to be associated with rapport-building were compared to determine if either or both could influence participants to disclose more personal information. In an experiment, an interviewer performed one of four conditions with participants: verbal commonalities, mirrored body postures, a combination of both, or neither (control). Results indicated that participants were more willing to discuss personal, or “closed” topics when verbal commonalities were used alone, versus in conjunction with nonverbal mirroring. The simple effect of mirroring trended in the predicted direction but was not significantly different from the control group. Practical and research-based implications for rapport-building in interviews are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Interview techniques
• rapport-building
• verbal commonalities
• posture mirroring
• self-disclosure

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Following the data and procedures described in the manuscript, we also collected data related to observations of rapport during a staged interview between the interviewer and a research actor. Due to methodological issues, we, in consultation with the reviewers and editor, decided to report this second study in an online supplement rather than in the main text (see https://osf.io/nak4g/).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eric Novotny

Eric Novotny is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Games and Virtual Environments Lab (GAVEL) within the Grady College of Mass Communication and Journalism at the University of Georgia. His research primarily focuses on phenomenology and outcomes of nonverbal, interpersonal, and mediated forms of communication, and leverages new media technology to study these phenomena.

Mark G. Frank

Mark G. Frank is a Professor in the Department of Communication at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. He specializes in nonverbal communication, with a focus on understanding the complexities of facial expressions and deception in meaningful real world settings.

Matthew Grizzard

Matthew Grizzard is an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication at The Ohio State University. Situated within media psychology and mass communication, his research program examines moral judgments processes as they relate to the consumption of popular media, with a primary focus on narratives. For example, current projects explore how viewers come to evaluate characters as heroes and villains, what types of narrative content elicit moral emotions such as guilt, and why viewers prefer some types of narrative resolution over others. Matthew is a member of the editorial boards for Journal of Media Psychology and Communication Research Reports. He is also an officer in the Communication and Social Cognition Division of the National Communication Association.