What is it about?
Many people think that friends more readily understand each other than strangers. We let friends and strangers play the word description game taboo to test this idea. We do not find that friends need fewer words than strangers to make the other guess the right words. We do find, however, that people are more motivated to do well and enjoy the game more when playing with a friend.
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Why is it important?
It is important to successfully communicate with others. But how can be we successful? Our research contributes to our understanding of communication by showing that people use different strategies for different people. With friends, people refer to their shared memories. But this does not make them better. As long as people have the idea that strangers do not understand each other well, they may be hesitant to work together with strangers. Our research shows that this fear is ungrounded.
Perspectives
This article mainly presents 'non-significant findings', meaning that we observe no differences (where lay-theory would expect them to be there). It is uncommon for non-significant findings to get published, so I was very pleased that it was accepted as a valuable contribution.
Monique Pollmann
Tilburg University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: How Do Friends and Strangers Play the Game Taboo? A Study of Accuracy, Efficiency, Motivation, and the Use of Shared Knowledge, Journal of Language and Social Psychology, October 2017, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0261927x17736084.
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