Can’t We Just Talk about This? New Insights into Difficult Conversations

Abstract

The current symposium provides new insights into difficult conversations. We first highlight which conversations people find difficult, looking at whether people want to initiate sensitive conversations or wait to confess something. We then discuss other factors beside the topic of the conversation that can make conversations difficult. Different class backgrounds might create anxiety for the interlocutors and having different mindsets in a conversation might lead to different outcomes. However, with all these difficulties of having a conversation with someone who is different from you, we show that people still try to find opportunities to talk about difficult topics. What Are You Waiting For? Delaying a Confession Does Not Help Presenter: Katherine Qianwen Sun; Columbia Business School Presenter: Michael Slepian; Columbia Business School Interacting Across Class Lines: Who is Threatened in Cross-Class versus Same-Class Interactions? Presenter: Mindy Truong; Northwestern Kellogg School of Management Presenter: Sarah S M Townsend; U. of Southern California Presenter: Nicole Stephens; Northwestern U. Dialogue vs. Debate: Causes and Consequences of Two Approaches to Disagreement Presenter: Kristina Wald; U. of Chicago Booth School of business Presenter: Anastasiya Apalkova; U. of Chicago Booth School of business Presenter: Xuan Zhao; Stanford U. Presenter: Heather M. Caruso; UCLA Anderson School of Management Presenter: Jane Risen; U. of Chicago Booth School of business “If it’s easy, you’re doing it wrong:” Managing discomfort in conversations about allyship Presenter: Olivia Foster-Gimbel; New York U.