My research studies the choices people make in conversation, in the context of the the goals they are pursuing. For a discussion of the conversational goal framework, please see this (short!) review paper:
Yeomans, M., Schweitzer, M. & Brooks, A.W. (2022). The Conversational Circumplex: Identifying, Prioritizing, and Pursuing Informational and Relational Motives in Conversation. Current Opinion in Psychology, 44, 293-302.
Additionally, my colleagues and I have written a (longer!) review paper dealing with the unique challenges of dealing with conversations as data:
Yeomans, M., Boland, K.F., Collins, H., Abi-Esber, N. & Brooks, A.W. (2023) A Practical Guide to Conversation Research. Advances in Methods & Practices in Psychological Science, in press.
How can we manage disagreement constructively?
Yeomans, M., Bendersky, C., Weingart, L.R. & Kim, Y. (2024). A Natural Language Processing Model for Conflict Expression in Conversation. Under Review
Minson, J., Yeomans, M., Collins, H., Dorison, C. (2024) Conversational Receptiveness Transmits Between Parties And Brdges Ideological Conflict.. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, in press.
Yeomans, M. (2022). The Straw Man Effect: Partisan Misrepresentation in Natural Language. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 25(7), 1905-1924.
Yeomans, M., Minson, J., Collins, H., Chen, F. & Gino, F. (2020) Conversational Receptiveness: Improving Engagement With Opposing Views. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 160, 131-148.
Jeong, M., Minson, J., Yeomans, M. & Gino, F. (2019). Communicating Warmth in Distributive Negotiations is Surprisingly Counter-Productive. Management Science, 65(12), 5449-5956.
Yeomans, M., Reich, J. Stewart, B., Kindel, A. & Tingley, D. (2018). The Civic Mission of MOOCs: Computational Measures of Engagement Across Differences in Online Courses. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 28(4), 553-589.
Yeomans, M., Kantor, A. & Tingley, D. (2018). Detecting Politeness in Natural Language. The R Journal, 10(2), 489-502. politeness R Package
How can we build better relationships?
Yeomans, M. & Brooks, A.W. (2024). Topic Preference Detection: A Conversational Approach to Perspective-Taking. Invited Revisions.
Brooks, A.W. & Yeomans, M.(2024). Boomerasking: Asking and then answering your own question. Invited Revisions.
Huang, K., Yeomans, M., Brooks, A.W., Minson, J. & Gino, F. (2017). It doesn’t hurt to ask: Question-Asking increases liking. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(3), 430-452.
Yeomans, M., Brooks, A.W., Huang, K., Minson, J. & Gino, F. (2019). It helps to ask: The cumulative benefits of asking follow-up questions.. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 117(6), 1139-1144.
How can we learn more from others?
Cho, J. Y., Tao, Y., Yeomans, M., Tingley, D., & Kizilcec, R. F. (2024, March). Which Planning Tactics Predict Online Course Completion?. In Proceedings of the 14th Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference, 360-370.
Blunden^, H., Kristal^, A., Whillans, A., Yoon, J., Burd, H., Bremner, G. & Yeomans, M. (2024). Eliciting Advice Instead of Feedback Improves Developmental Input. Invited Revisions.
Yeomans, M. (2021). A Concrete Application of Construct Construction for Natural Language Processing. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 162, 81-94. doc2concrete R package
Kizilcec, R.^, Reich, J.^, Yeomans, M.^, Dann, C., Brunskill, E., Lopez, G., Turkay, S., Williams, J. & Tingley, D. (2020). Scaling Up Behavioral Science Interventions in Online Education. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(26), 14900-14905
Yeomans, M., Shah, A., Mullainathan, S. & Kleinberg, J. (2019). Making Sense of Recommendations. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 32(4), 403-414.
Yeomans, M. (2019). Some Hedonic Consequences of Perspective-Taking in Word of Mouth. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 29(1), 22-38.
Yeomans, M.,Reich, J. (2017). Planning to Learn: Planning Prompts Encourage and Forecast Goal Pursuit in Online Education. Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Learning Analytics & Knowledge, 464-473. ACM.
Robinson, C., Yeomans, M.,Reich, J., Gelbach, H. & Huileman, C. (2016). Forecasting Student Achievement in MOOCs with Natural Language Processing. Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Learning Analytics & Knowledge, 383-387. ACM.