Controlling conversations: Turns, topics and interpersonal control

Abstract

This paper argues that controlling access to conversations by controlling how long partners may talk and on what topics they may talk is a form of interpersonal dominance. Research has shown that partners who talk more are usually considered more dominant, and partners who introduce more new topics in a conversation are considered more dominant. However, this research is typically conducted using non‐natural conversations and is based entirely on mean level, aggregate data. Furthermore, the link between interpersonal control and topic manipulation has never been directly tested. Thus it is unclear if the findings on length of talk and topic manipulation can be generalized to naturalistic conversations which demonstrate dynamic, relational transactions over time. A study was conducted in which groups of participants read a transcript of a naturalistic conversation and made judgments of dominance and topic relatedness at each utterance. Time series regression techniques applied to the data revealed that at both utterance and turn levels, the longer a conversational partner talked and the less related were his or her remarks, the more that partner was considered to be in control (regardless of which partner was speaking). It was concluded that managing floor time and topical focus are two important behaviors influencing the immediate, moment‐to‐moment development of interpersonal relationships in conversational settings.

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