The Theory of Ethically Resonant Listening: Listening as an Ethically Consequential Practice

Listening research has primarily conceptualized listening as an interpersonal competence, generating important insights into relational communication while leaving underexamined the conditions under which listening becomes consequential. This article introduces the Theory of Ethically Resonant Listening (TERL), which conceptualizes listening as an ethically consequential practice situated within social and structural conditions. TERL presents listening as a layered phenomenon consisting of contextual positioning (temporality and positionality), ethical orientations (relational vulnerability, ethical responsiveness, and resonant asymmetry), relational dimensions (presence, silence, openness, connection, and recognition), and modes of ethical response (disruptive, generative, protective, absorptive, receptive, and reflective listening). The framework enables analysis of listening across interpersonal, organizational, institutional, and societal contexts. The article argues that the central ethical problem of listening is not its occurrence but its consequences. TERL contributes to listening scholarship by offering a theoretical vocabulary for analyzing listening as a socially situated practice, providing a heuristic framework for research and professional contexts, and conceptualizing ethically resonant listening as a configuration that can be examined across interactions and systems.