Lavin2001

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Lavin2001
BibType ARTICLE
Key Lavin2001
Author(s) Danielle Lavin, Douglas W. Maynard
Title Standardization vs. rapport: respondent laughter and interviewer reaction during telephone surveys
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Interviews, Laughter, Telephone Surveys
Publisher
Year 2001
Language
City
Month
Journal American Sociological Review
Volume 66
Number 3
Pages 453–479
URL Link
DOI 10.2307/3088888
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

Laughter emerges naturally in interaction. In the context of the telephone survey interview, however, laughter threatens standardization. Consequently, some survey research centers prohibit interviewers from laughing during the administration of surveys. The data for this study are recorded telephone interviews from one such survey research center. How interviewers handle the "laughter invitations" of respondents is analyzed. Because these interviewers are not taught what to do when laughter occurs, they rely on their tacit knowledge, either accepting the invitation, declining it, or engaging in "pseudo-laughter": Interviewers most often decline or use a pseudo-laughing response. Laughter patterns in a survey research center that does not prohibit interviewer laughter are examined for comparison, and generally much more reciprocation and laughter are observed. Respondent laughter exhibits a central tension in the telephone survey interview: How can interviewers maintain both standardization and an appropriately affiliative social relationship with respondents? The differential management of this tension is explored in terms of survey methodology, the sociology of (social) scientific knowledge, and the organization of talk in institutional settings.

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