Conversational Behaviors with Large Gaps between Ideal and Real
Student respondents to our initial campus-wide survey were asked to rate each behavior as positive or negative (1=very negative, 5=very positive), to indicate how often each occurs in campus conversations (1=almost never, 5=almost always), and to indicate how often they personal engage in each (1=almost never, 5=almost always).
|
|
Dialogue Component |
Ideal Mean |
Real Mean |
Personal Mean |
Ideal-Real Gap |
Ideal-Personal Gap |
|
Participants with extreme views speak more than those in the middle. |
Inclusivity |
2.0529 |
4.1361 |
n/a |
2.0832 |
n/a |
|
Participants interrupt one another. |
Civility |
1.7507 |
3.4041 |
2.0914 |
1.6563 |
0.3407 |
|
Participants choose not to speak. |
Flight |
1.5794 |
3.2059 |
2.5353 |
1.6265 |
0.9559 |
|
Participants encourage newcomers to speak up. |
Civility |
4.3824 |
2.8964 |
3.4074 |
1.4860 |
0.9750 |
|
Participants are open to changing their minds. |
Civility |
4.3363 |
2.8647 |
3.7265 |
1.4716 |
0.6098 |
|
Everyone has a chance to speak. |
Civility |
4.6824 |
3.2721 |
n/a |
1.4103 |
n/a |
|
Participants try to see the issue from the perspective of oppressed persons. |
n/a |
4.5324 |
3.1382 |
4.1088 |
1.3942 |
0.4236 |
|
Participants try to win. |
Competitiveness |
2.5618 |
3.9556 |
3.2500 |
1.3938 |
0.6882 |
|
Participants raise their voices. |
Civility |
2.0794 |
3.3743 |
2.2750 |
1.2949 |
0.2956 |
|
Participants avoid the most challenging subjects. |
Flight |
1.5280 |
2.7655 |
2.2824 |
1.2375 |
0.7544 |
|
Participants listen attentively. |
Civility |
4.8118 |
3.6888 |
4.5294 |
1.1230 |
0.2824 |
|
Participants build stronger relationships with one another. |
Common Ground |
4.2912 |
3.2160 |
3.7059 |
1.0752 |
0.5853 |
|
Participants use insulting language. |
Civility |
1.2041 |
2.2700 |
1.4412 |
1.0659 |
0.2371 |
|
Participants acknowledge the best arguments of those with whom they disagree. |
Objectivity |
4.0779 |
3.0206 |
3.6147 |
1.0573 |
0.4632 |
|
Participants change the subject to something less controversial. |
Flight |
1.8029 |
2.8521 |
2.0882 |
1.0492 |
0.2853 |
|
Participants gain a deeper understanding of objective truth. |
Values |
4.3935 |
3.3580 |
n/a |
1.0355 |
n/a |
|
Participants focus on the weakest aspects of one another’s arguments. |
Competitiveness |
2.6445 |
3.6574 |
3.0015 |
1.0129 |
0.3570 |