Physiological responses to proposals during dyadic decision-making conversations.

Enikö Savander,Emmi Koskinen,Samuel Tuhkanen,Melisa Stevanovic,Milla Järvensivu,Kaisa Valkia

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0244929

Enikö Savander, Emmi Koskinen + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244929

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Abstract

A novel conversation-analytically informed paradigm was used to examine how joint decision-making interaction, with its various types of proposal sequences, is reflected in the physiological responses of participants. Two types of dyads–dyads with one depressed and one non-depressed participant (N = 15) and dyads with two non-depressed participants (N = 15)–engaged in a series of conversational joint decision-making tasks, during which we measured their skin conductance (SC) responses. We found that the participants’ SC response rates were higher and more synchronized during proposal sequences than elsewhere in the conversation. Furthermore, SC response rates were higher when the participant was in the role of a proposal speaker (vs. a proposal recipient), and making a proposal was associated with higher SC response rates for participants with depression (vs. participants without depression). Moreover, the SC response rates in the proposal speaker were higher when the recipient accepted (vs. not accepted) the proposal. We interpret this finding with reference to accepting responses suggesting a commitment to future action, for which the proposal speaker may feel specifically responsible for. A better understanding of the physiological underpinnings of joint decision-making interaction may help improve democratic practices in contexts where certain individuals experience challenges in this regard.

Highlights

During the most recent years, the field of empirical social interaction studies has witnessed a rise of novel interdisciplinary research approaches
We seek to enhance understanding of how joint decision-making interaction with its different types of proposal sequences is reflected in the physiological responses of participants with and without depression
We differentiated between proposal sequences and nonproposal sequences to examine whether the local sequential context of interaction had an effect on the degree of synchronicity

Summary

Introduction

During the most recent years, the field of empirical social interaction studies has witnessed a rise of novel interdisciplinary research approaches. In addition to describing the details of how various lexical, prosodic, and facial expression of emotion are embedded in, and regulated by, the sequential structures of social interaction, there have been attempts to consider the psychophysiological underpinnings of social interactional phenomena in a level of detail that has been unprecedented in the past [2, 3].

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