Do Moral Communicators Make Better Listeners? Personality, Virtue and Receiver Apprehension as Predictors of Active Empathetic-Listening

ABSTRACT As personality, apprehension, and personal virtue can influence interpersonal communication, the research question in this project was the degree each play in accounting for active empathetic listening. Participants completed self-report surveys to explore the predictive potential of communicator personality, receiver apprehension, and virtue on active-empathetic listening (AEL). Regression analyses indicated that virtue and receiver apprehension accounted for more variance in AEL than personality factors. Faithfulness – a virtue indicating relational commitment to one’s conversational partner – proved the strongest predictor even though self-control, humility, work, and wisdom correlated positively with AEL and most listening stages (sensing, processing, and responding). Discussion explores the role of humility in being ‘other-wise,’ what constitutes a faithful listener, and the potential of empathic-altruism in one’s moral identity as key to understanding listening well.