60 years ago Carl Rogers noted the huge potential of a special form of
listening named, “listening for understanding”, to solve a multitude of
societal problems reaching as far as world peace. Listening for
understanding is characterized by the listener’s intent to support rather
than finding ways to control or manipulate the speaker (Barnlund, 1962
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), by empathy and attempts to see things from the speaker’s perspective and
sending the speaker signals that one is accurately understood (Gordon, 1977
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). According to Rogers (1980
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) non-judgmental nature of listening for understanding reduces the
speaker’s anxiety and enables awareness of opposite cognitions within
speakers' attitude. These opposite cognitions are typically outside
awareness and becoming aware of them can shake the conscious belief system (
Hermans
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2002
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).
Thus, drawing on Rogers’s theory, we predicted that listening for
understanding reduces speakers' social anxiety, which increases
objective-attitude ambivalence, and hence reduces attitude extremity. This
model was consistently supported with a scenario experiment (*N = *219), a
correlational study (*N =*172), a field quasi-experiment (*N = *31), and a
laboratory experiment (*N* = 114).
Our research illuminates the implication of Carl Rogers’s theory (1980
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) for attitude change. Rogers’s approach informed various therapy
practices; however, we are not aware of any previous attempt to empirically
test his core argument, that some type of listening integrates conflicting
cognitions within the self. We hope that our research will open new
opportunities for exploring the potential of empathic listening for
creating desired changes, in fields such as persuasion, negotiation, and
intergroup conflicts.
