How can people connect more deeply through self-disclosure? Testing the linguistic, nonverbal, and neural mechanisms of successful communication

孤独是对健康、生产力和幸福的日益严重的威胁。为了应对其后果，找到人们与他人联系的方法越来越重要。人们建立社会联系的一种方式是与他人分享他们的经历（即，自我揭露）。成功的自我表露可以让听众更好地理解说话者的经历，更深入地了解他们是谁，最终建立更好的社会关系。然而，自我表露并不总是能达到这个目的。这项工作探讨了自我表露何时以及如何促进社会联系，揭示了对话伙伴如何发展共同的理解。这些发现为未来的干预措施奠定了基础，以制定沟通策略，促进社会联系。为了实现这些目标，目前的工作解决了两个关键问题。在其第一个目标，工作确定自我披露的策略，使个人能够有效地传达他们的经验，听众。令人惊讶的是，关于人们如何帮助听众理解他们的研究非常有限。挑战在于准确地衡量共同的理解，而不干扰听众或仅仅依靠他们的主观评估。神经同步性，衡量两个大脑随着时间的推移相似地处理事件的程度，已经成为一种帮助听众理解说话者经历细节的机制。通过观察两个大脑如何从一个时刻到下一个时刻连接在一起（使用神经成像技术）而不中断自然的交流体验，这项研究揭示了语言（例如，情感的、生动的和反思性的语言）和非语言的（例如，声音模式、无声停顿、语速）的披露要素，促进成功的沟通。在其第二个目标中，目前的工作旨在发现对话伙伴如何发展一种共享意义的感觉。目前尚不清楚神经同步是否能让听众超越对说话者经历的基本理解，更深入地了解他们的个性特征、动机和生活故事。因此，目前的研究措施，人们如何发展的细微差别的信息的共同解释，扬声器寻求传达自己在自我披露，以检查在何种程度上，神经同步帮助听众理解更深层次的意义，扬声器的披露，而不仅仅是得到的事实直。这些发现有助于增强自我表露如何促进人与人之间的共同理解的理论框架，并帮助未来的学者制定建立社会联系的策略。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

Loneliness is a growing threat to health, productivity, and well-being. To combat its consequences, it is increasingly important to find ways for people to connect with others. One way people can build social connection is through sharing their experiences with others (i.e., self-disclosure). Successful self-disclosure allows listeners to gain a better understanding of the speaker's experiences, deeper insights into who they are, and ultimately, better social connection. However, self-disclosure does not always achieve this goal. This work explores when and how self-disclosure promotes social connection, shedding light on how conversation partners develop shared understandings. The findings set the stage for future interventions to develop communication strategies to promote social connection.To achieve these goals, the current work addresses two crucial issues. In its first aim, the work identifies self-disclosure strategies that enable individuals to effectively convey their experiences to listeners. Surprisingly, there has been limited research on how people help listeners understand them. The challenge lies in accurately measuring shared understanding without disrupting listeners or relying solely on their subjective assessments. Neural synchrony, which measures the extent to which two brains process events similarly over time, has emerged as a mechanism that helps listeners comprehend the details of speakers' experiences. By observing how two brains link together (using neuroimaging techniques) from one moment to the next without interrupting the natural experience of communication, this study uncovers the linguistic (e.g., emotional, vivid, and reflective language) and nonverbal (e.g., vocal patterns, silent pauses, speech rate) elements of disclosures that promote successful communication. In its second aim, the current work seeks to discover how conversation partners develop a sense of shared meaning. It remains unknown whether neural synchrony enables listeners to move beyond a basic understanding of speakers’ experiences and gain deeper insight into their personality traits, motivations, and life stories. Thus, the current research measures how people develop shared interpretations of the nuanced information speakers seek to convey about themselves during self-disclosure to examine the extent to which neural synchrony helps listeners understand the deeper meaning of a speaker’s disclosure beyond just getting the facts straight. These findings contribute to an enhanced theoretical framework for how self-disclosure fosters shared understanding between people and help future scholars develop strategies for building social connection.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.