Interrupting costs more socially in remote channels
Aliases: remote interruption · interruption cost · conversational repair
What it is
The social cost of interruption is higher remotely: an interjector cannot easily show “just an addition,” cannot judge whether they have seized a turn, and the interrupted person cannot readily reclaim it through gaze or posture. People therefore suppress timely questions and dissent.
Why it happens
Face-to-face interruption can be repaired through gesture, smile, volume, and space while both voices remain partly available. Remote audio turns overlap into unintelligible noise and may automatically suppress one voice. Intent and impact are opaque, raising politeness risk; cautious members wait until the topic has moved on.
Studying it
- Paradigms: compare additions, dissent, and floor-grabbing across in-person, video, and audio interaction.
- Variables: channel, overlap treatment, interruption type, repair duration, later speech, and perceived politeness.
- Methodological caution: code collaborative additions separately from dominance interruptions.
Where it stops holding
In consequential decisions, tolerating a polite interruption can be safer than missing dissent. In anonymous large groups, lowering entry cost can enable harassment or monopolisation, requiring norms and facilitation.
Applying it
- Provide light dissent routes that do not seize audio: pending-response marks, text, and hand raise.
- Have facilitators recover chat and raised questions, explicitly legitimising additions.
- Let an interrupted speaker mark a point to return to.
- Verification: audit whether dissent and clarification fall by channel and ask whether people dare intervene at critical moments.
Related
- Same group: V5.04.1 Turn-taking relies on signals that others can perceive · V5.04.2 Remote channels weaken bodily cues that foreshadow a turn · V5.04.3 Transmission delay makes both speakers start and retreat · V5.04.5 Speaking opportunity is uneven by default and needs facilitation
- Nearby: V5.05 Hand raising, queues, and facilitation tools · V7.01 Social norms
- Search terms:
interruption·social cost·remote meetings