Most of my research studies conversations - the choices people make, and the goals they pursue. 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.
My empirical papers each explore an aspect of various kinds of high-stakes conversations, and the implications for leaders, learners, partners, colleagues, community members, and more. (a ^ denotes co-equal first authorship)
How can we foster constructive disagreement?
Yeomans, M., Bendersky, C., Weingart, L.R. & Kim, Y. Measuring Conflict Expression in Conversation using Humans and Algorithms. Under Review. DICE-M R Package
Bevis, B., Schroeder, J. & Yeomans, M.. Spoken Conversation Facilitates Constructive Disagreement. Under Review.
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. 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. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, in press.
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?
Blunden^, H., Kristal^, A., Whillans, A., Yoon, J., Burd, H., Bremner, G. & Yeomans, M. Eliciting Advice Instead of Feedback Improves Developmental Input. Conditionally Accepted to Management Science.
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.
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.