Linguistic Coordination as an Unobtrusive, Dynamic Indicator of Rapport, Prosocial Team Processes, and Performance in Team Communication

Language style matching (LSM; the extent to which individuals match others’ function or “filler” words in communication) has been investigated as a potential predictor of rapport and team processes (e.g., trust). We examined the potential of LSM as an unobtrusive bottom-up indicator of rapport, trust, cohesion, and performance using a distributed, team problem-solving task. We found a dynamic relationship between LSM and performance. The relationship changes over time as team interaction progresses, but LSM also interacts with trust and rapport to affect performance. We introduce a model to explain the relationship between LSM, rapport, trust, and performance in this context.