Language and Social Influence in Small Conversational Groups

Abstract

University students, in groups of 3 or 4, discussed legal aspects of commercial surrogacy and afterwards ranked the relative influence of each group member. As predicted, high-influence members spoke more words and had more successful turns during the conversation than low-influence members. The latter used a greater rate of intonation and intensifiers than the former. A closer examination of the results showed that turns were particularly important for high influence. Unexpectedly, tag questions and hedges did not result in low influence, probably due to the different usage of tag questions and to the nature of the conversation setting which, unlike one facing court witnesses, required tactful hedging in the exertion of influence.