Pseudolistening

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WHAT MIGHT Mr. Burns be saying here? Homer Simpson doesn’t know because he’s pseudolistening. Fox/Photofest

When you become impatient or bored with someone’s communication messages, you may engage in pseudolistening—pretending to listen by nodding or saying “uh-huh” when you’re really not paying attention at all. While pseudolistening may help you keep up a polite appearance of listening, one of its downsides is that you can actually miss important information or offend your communication partner and damage the relationship when the pseudolistening is discovered. Pseudolistening is a common trope in television sitcoms—when Homer Simpson or Peter Griffin nod absently (daydreaming about food or some other inappropriate topic) even though they haven’t listened to a word their communication partner has said, we find it funny and perhaps a little familiar. But in real life, implying that we have listened when we have not can have disastrous consequences: we miss instructions, neglect tasks that we have implied we would complete, and fail to meet others’ needs.