Asking the right questions? What people learn about strangers in conversation

Abstract

When meeting somebody for the first time, how do we get to know them? In the current work, we investigate how people learn about others’ personalities through the questions they ask in conversation. Across two studies, participants completed a personality inventory then were paired with an online partner for a ten-minute chat. They were either instructed to get to know their partner in freeform conversation or were provided questions to discuss. The questions were either informative or uninformative for getting to know a stranger. Participants completed the same personality inventory about their partner afterwards. We test whether choosing from informative questions enabled participants to form a more accurate impression of their partner. We find that freeform conversation improved personality predictions overall, but differences in the informativeness of the questions discussed had minimal effects on accuracy; deep questions may only be as good as the disclosures they elicit.