The Artful Dodger: Answering the Wrong Question the Right Way

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, April 25, 2011

32 Pages Posted: 12 May 2011

See all articles by Todd Rogers

Todd Rogers

Harvard University - Harvard Kennedy School (HKS)

Michael I. Norton

Harvard Business School - Marketing Unit

Date Written: May 10, 2011

Abstract

What happens when speakers try to “dodge” a question they would rather not answer by answering a different question? In 4 studies, we show that listeners can fail to detect dodges when speakers answer similar – but objectively incorrect – questions (the “artful dodge”), a detection failure that goes hand-in-hand with a failure to rate dodgers more negatively. We propose that dodges go undetected because listeners’ attention is not usually directed toward a goal of dodge detection (i.e., Is this person answering the question?) but rather toward a goal of social evaluation (i.e., Do I like this person?). Listeners were not blind to all dodge attempts, however. Dodge detection increased when listeners’ attention was diverted from social goals toward determining the relevance of the speaker’s answers (Study 1), when speakers answered a question egregiously dissimilar to the one asked (Study 2), and when listeners’ attention was directed to the question asked by keeping it visible during speakers’ answers (Study 4). We also examined the interpersonal consequences of dodge attempts: When listeners were guided to detect dodges, they rated speakers more negatively (Study 2), and listeners rated speakers who answered a similar question in a fluent manner more positively than speakers who answered the actual question but disfluently (Study 3). These results add to the literatures on both Gricean conversational norms and goal-directed attention. We discuss the practical implications of our findings in the contexts of interpersonal communication and public debates.

Keywords: Gricean Norms, Conversational Implicature, Goal-Directed Attention, Inattentional Blindness

Suggested Citation

Rogers, Todd and Norton, Michael I., The Artful Dodger: Answering the Wrong Question the Right Way (May 10, 2011). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, April 25, 2011, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1837779

Todd Rogers (Contact Author)

Harvard University - Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) ( email )

79 John F. Kennedy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Michael I. Norton

Harvard Business School - Marketing Unit ( email )

Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
United States

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