Defining Listening to Explain Moments of Connection

When a speaker senses they are being listened to, they speak authentically, and both listener and speaker are likely to experience a moment of connection that facilitates growth and discovery, as hypothesized by Episodic Listening Theory (ELT). Through this theory, we consider an existing definition of listening, “the degree to which a person devotes themselves to co-explore the Other with and for the other,” and the seven papers in this forum that engage with it. We find that the definition serves ELT well and that the seven papers advance ELT. To give context for ELT, we share a bereavement story and then consider the contribution of these papers: devotion requires decoding; devotion is enacted by reading the speaker’s body, reading one’s own, and offering what one reads; the path from devotion to behavior and the path from behavior to the speaker’s evaluation are moderated by culture and channel; creating moments of connection requires high levels of listening that existing items barely capture; low levels of listening still lack a definition; and a single authentic speaker can make many people listen.