What does this research mean for the field?

While speech disfluencies like filled pauses do not negatively impact global evaluations of a speaker's competence, trustworthiness, or warmth, they do reduce perceived trustworthiness and certainty at the local conversation level and increase the likelihood of avoidance in future interactions. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.CONTRADICTORY. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.CHALLENGES_CONSENSUS.

What question did this study set out to answer?

To assess how speech disfluencies, such as filled pauses in spontaneous speech, influence listeners' multidimensional social judgments and communicative decisions.

September 5, 2026CognitionOpen Access

Does disfluency affect social judgments and decisions? Evidence from spontaneous speech

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Authors

JLJonathan Him Nok Lee APAnna Papafragou

Discussion

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Overview

Experimental study demonstrates context-dependent social evaluations of speech disfluency, indicating that filled pauses reduce local conversational trust while sparing global impressions.

Key Points

To assess how speech disfluencies, such as filled pauses in spontaneous speech, influence listeners' multidimensional social judgments and communicative decisions.
Conducted four experiments using auditory stimuli from natural, spontaneous speech to evaluate listener impressions across various communicative contexts.
Measured global person-level traits (competence, trustworthiness, warmth) in Experiment 1, and conversation-level traits (trustworthiness, readiness, certainty) in Experiments 2 and 3.
Evaluated behavioral decision-making by tracking listener intent to avoid future interactions with disfluent speakers in Experiment 4.
Filled pauses did not alter global person-level evaluations of perceived speaker competence, warmth, or overall trustworthiness.
Conversation-level evaluations revealed that filled pauses decreased perceived speaker trustworthiness, certainty, and readiness, though experts using pauses were rated as more careful than novices.
Speakers who produced filled pauses were significantly more likely to be avoided by listeners in subsequent social interactions.

Cite This Study

Lee et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a9bd3e16b95aff0620eb019 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106697

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September 5, 2026CognitionOpen Access

Does disfluency affect social judgments and decisions? Evidence from spontaneous speech

View Full Paper

Ask AI

Bookmark

Authors

JLJonathan Him Nok Lee APAnna Papafragou

Discussion

Member takes

Overview

Experimental study demonstrates context-dependent social evaluations of speech disfluency, indicating that filled pauses reduce local conversational trust while sparing global impressions.

Key Points

To assess how speech disfluencies, such as filled pauses in spontaneous speech, influence listeners' multidimensional social judgments and communicative decisions.
Conducted four experiments using auditory stimuli from natural, spontaneous speech to evaluate listener impressions across various communicative contexts.
Measured global person-level traits (competence, trustworthiness, warmth) in Experiment 1, and conversation-level traits (trustworthiness, readiness, certainty) in Experiments 2 and 3.
Evaluated behavioral decision-making by tracking listener intent to avoid future interactions with disfluent speakers in Experiment 4.
Filled pauses did not alter global person-level evaluations of perceived speaker competence, warmth, or overall trustworthiness.
Conversation-level evaluations revealed that filled pauses decreased perceived speaker trustworthiness, certainty, and readiness, though experts using pauses were rated as more careful than novices.
Speakers who produced filled pauses were significantly more likely to be avoided by listeners in subsequent social interactions.

Cite This Study

Lee et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a9bd3e16b95aff0620eb019 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106697

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