'Hears' the thing: A meta-analytic systematic review of the effects perceived listening
Restricted (Penn State Only)
- Author:
- Vogel, Elisa
- Graduate Program:
- Communication Arts and Sciences (MA)
- Degree:
- Master of Arts
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- February 21, 2024
- Committee Members:
- John W Gastil, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
James Dillard, Committee Member
Kirt Wilson, Program Head/Chair
Shannon Cruz, Committee Member - Keywords:
- listening
meta-analysis
attitude change
organizational behavior - Abstract:
- Perceived listening is hypothesized to produce numerous outcomes of interest to communication researchers, such as attitude change, trust, and emotions. The quantitative research examining these relationships, however, lies scattered across disciplines and lacks broader empirical theory. This thesis conducts a meta-analytic review of the quantitative literature on the effects of perceived listening to synthesize the available research on this general hypothesis and draws on 57 studies from 32 articles yielding 156 effect sizes and a total N of 11,723, finding significant effect sizes for most of the variables in the meta-analysis and categories of variables in the holistic review. The strongest associations (r > .60) come from dependent variables that reflect the speaker’s perceptions of the listener such as relatedness (k = 5, r = .62) and trust (k = 5, r = .68). Moderator analysis reveals the stronger effects of perceived listening in workplace contexts compared to interpersonal or political contexts. In conducting this review, I consider the future direction of listening research in organizational communication needed to explain the strength of outcomes found in the workplace and provide a summary account of listening’s impact that can be used to guide and build future empirical theory in subfields such as political communication where the related outcomes are of interest but are as of yet untested.