Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
Nat Commun. 2024 Sep 5;15(1):7781. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-51990-7.
During conversation, people often endeavor to convey information in an understandable way (finding common ground) while also sharing novel or surprising information (exploring new ground). Here, we test how friends and strangers balance these two strategies to connect with each other. Using fMRI hyperscanning, we measure a preference for common ground as convergence over time and exploring new ground as divergence over time by tracking dyads' neural and linguistic trajectories over the course of semi-structured intimacy-building conversations. In our study, 60 dyads (30 friend dyads) engaged in a real-time conversation with discrete prompts and demarcated turns. Our analyses reveal that friends diverge neurally and linguistically: their neural patterns become more dissimilar over time and they explore more diverse topics. In contrast, strangers converge: neural patterns and language become more similar over time. The more a conversation between strangers resembles the exploratory conversations of friends, the more they enjoy it. Our results highlight exploring new ground as a strategy for a successful conversation.
在对话中，人们通常努力以可理解的方式传达信息（寻找共同点），同时分享新颖或令人惊讶的信息（探索新领域）。在这里，我们测试朋友和陌生人如何平衡这两种策略来相互联系。我们使用 fMRI 超扫描技术，通过跟踪对偶在半结构化建立亲密关系对话过程中的神经和语言轨迹，来衡量随着时间的推移对共同点的偏好，即趋同，以及探索新领域的偏好，即趋异。在我们的研究中，60 对（30 对朋友）在有离散提示和明确轮次的情况下进行实时对话。我们的分析表明，朋友在神经和语言上存在分歧：他们的神经模式随着时间的推移变得越来越不同，他们探索的话题也越来越多样化。相比之下，陌生人则趋同：神经模式和语言随着时间的推移变得更加相似。陌生人之间的对话越像朋友之间的探索性对话，他们就越喜欢。我们的研究结果强调了探索新领域是成功对话的一种策略。
