Editing Rapport

{{Short description|Close and harmonious relationship}}
{{other uses}}

'''Rapport''' ({{IPAc-en|r|ə|ˈ|p|ɔːr}} {{respell|rə|POR}}; {{IPA|fr|ʁapɔʁ|lang}}) is a close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned are "in sync" with each other, understand each other's feelings or ideas, and communicate smoothly.<ref name=":1">{{cite web |url= http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rapport |title= Rapport – Definition |publisher= Merriam Webster |access-date= 22 Mar 2011 }}</ref>

The word derives from the [[French language|French]] verb {{lang|fr|rapporter}} which means literally to carry something back<ref>{{cite book |last1=Manser |first1=Martin |last2=Turton |first2=Nigel |title=Advanced Learners Dictionary |publisher=Wordsworth Editions |year=1998 |isbn=978-1-85326-763-5 |page=574 }}</ref><ref name=":1"/> (in the sense of how people relate to each other: what one person sends out the other sends back). For example, people with rapport may realize that they share similar values, beliefs, knowledge, or behaviors around politics, music, or sports.<ref name="KatzSweedler2010">{{cite book |author1=Neil H. Katz |author2=Marcia Koppelman Sweedler |author3=John W. Lawyer |title=Communication & Conflict Resolution Skills |date=6 December 2010 |publisher=Kendall Hunt Publishing Company |isbn=978-0-7575-7875-5}}</ref> This may also mean that they engage in reciprocal behaviors such as posture mirroring or increased coordination in their verbal and nonverbal interactions.<ref name="Psychological Inquiry">{{cite journal |last1=Tickle-Degnen |first1=Linda |last2=Rosenthal |first2=Robert |title=The Nature of Rapport and Its Nonverbal Correlates |url=http://www.justinecassell.com/discourse07/week3/TickleDegnenRosenthal_NatureofRapport.pdf |journal=Psychological Inquiry |date=1990 |volume=1 |issue=4 |pages=285–293 |doi=10.1207/s15327965pli0104_1|s2cid=2102460 }}</ref>

Rapport has been shown to have benefits for [[psychotherapy]] and [[medicine]],<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite journal |last1=Falkenström |first1=F |last2=Hatcher |first2=R |last3=Skjulsvik |first3=T |last4=Larsson |first4=M |last5=Holmqvist |first5=R |title=Development and Validation of a 6-item Working Alliance Psychotherapy |url=https://liu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:802104/FULLTEXT01.pdf |journal=Psychological Assessment |date=2014 |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=169–83 |doi=10.1037/pas0000038 |pmid=25346997}}</ref> negotiation,<ref name="ReferenceB">{{cite journal |last1=Drolet |first1=Aimee |last2=Morris |first2=Michael |title=Rapport in Conflict Resolution: Accounting for How Face-to-Face Contact Fosters Mutual Cooperation in Mixed-Motive Conflict |journal=Journal of Experimental Social Psychology |date=2000 |volume=36 |pages=25–30 |doi=10.1006/jesp.1999.1395|citeseerx=10.1.1.321.8823 |s2cid=15998184 }}</ref> education,<ref name="ReferenceC">{{cite journal |last1=Frisby |first1=Brandi |last2=Martin |first2=Matthew |title=Instructor–Student and Student–Student Rapport in the Classroom |journal=Communication Education |date=2010 |volume=59 |issue=2 |pages=146 |doi=10.1080/03634520903564362|s2cid=144995267 }}</ref> and tourism,<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last1=Lee |first1=Linda W. |last2=Boon |first2=Edward |last3=McCarthy |first3=Ian P. |date=2021-12-01 |title=Does getting along matter? Tourist-tourist rapport in guided group activities |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026151772100100X |journal=Tourism Management |language=en |volume=87 |pages=104381 |doi=10.1016/j.tourman.2021.104381 |issn=0261-5177}}</ref> among others. In each of these cases, the rapport between members of a dyad (e.g. a teacher and student or doctor and patient) allows the participants to coordinate their actions and establish a mutually beneficial working relationship, or what is often called a "working alliance".<ref name="ReferenceA"/> In consumer-oriented guided group activities (e.g., a cooking class, a wine tour, and hiking group), rapport is not only dyadic and customer-employee oriented, but also customer-customer and group-oriented as customers consume and interact with each other in a group for an extended period.<ref name=":0" />

== Building rapport ==
There are a number of techniques that are supposed to be beneficial in building rapport. These include matching [[body language]] (i.e., [[Human position|posture]], [[gesture]], etc.);<ref name="Psychological Inquiry"/> indicating attentiveness through maintaining [[eye contact]];<ref name="Intelligent Virtual Agents">{{cite book |last1=Zhao |first1=Ran |last2=Papangelis |first2=Alexandros |last3=Cassell |first3=Justine |chapter=Towards a Dyadic Computational Model of Rapport Management for Human-Virtual Agent Interaction |chapter-url=http://www.articulab.justinecassell.com/publications/Zhao,%20Papangelis,%20Cassell%20IVA2014.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160401131303/http://www.articulab.justinecassell.com/publications/Zhao,%20Papangelis,%20Cassell%20IVA2014.pdf|archive-date=2016-04-01 |title=Intelligent Virtual Agents |date=2014 |pages=514–527 |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-09767-1_62 |isbn=978-3-319-09767-1 |editor1-last=Bickmore |editor1-first=T. |editor2-last=Marsella |editor2-first=S. |editor3-last=Sidner |editor3-first=C. |series=Lecture Notes in Computer Science |volume=8637 |publisher=Springer|s2cid=13854040 }}</ref> and matching tempo, terminology, and [[breath]]ing [[rhythm]].<ref>{{Cite web |author=Program on Negotiation Staff |date=2022-06-23 |title=Body Language in Negotiation Can Build Rapport—Without Saying a Word |url=https://www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/negotiation-skills-daily/build-rapport-without-saying-a-word-nb/ |access-date=2022-11-25 |website=Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School |language=en-US}}</ref> In conversation, some verbal behaviors associated with increased rapport are the use of positivity (or, positive "face management"<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hopkins |first=Alexander E. |date=2015 |title=Face Management Theory: Modern Conceptualizations and Future Directions |url=http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1021/face-management-theory-modern-conceptualizations-and-future-directions |journal=Inquiries Journal |language=en |volume=7 |issue=4}}</ref>), sharing personal information of gradually increasing intimacy (or, "[[self-disclosure]]"), and reference to shared interests or experiences.<ref name="Intelligent Virtual Agents"/>

Building rapport can improve community-based research tactics, assist in finding a partner, improve student-teacher relationships, and allow employers to gain trust in employees.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Le Dantec |first1=Christopher A. |last2=Fox |first2=Sarah |title=Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing |chapter=Strangers at the Gate: Gaining Access, Building Rapport, and Co-Constructing Community-Based Research |date=2015-02-28 |chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1145/2675133.2675147|chapter-url-access=subscription |series=CSCW '15 |location=New York, NY, USA |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery |pages=1348–1358 |doi=10.1145/2675133.2675147 |isbn=978-1-4503-2922-4|s2cid=2989347 }}</ref>

Building rapport takes time. [[Extraversion and introversion|Extroverts]] tend to have an easier time building rapport than [[Extraversion and introversion|introverts]]. Extraversion accelerates the process due to an increase in confidence and skillfulness in social settings.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Duffy |first1=Korrina A. |last2=Chartrand |first2=Tanya L. |date=November 2015 |title=The Extravert Advantage: How and When Extraverts Build Rapport With Other People |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956797615600890|url-access=subscription|journal=Psychological Science |language=en |volume=26 |issue=11 |pages=1795–1802 |doi=10.1177/0956797615600890 |pmid=26408038 |s2cid=26416585 |issn=0956-7976}}</ref>

=== Methods ===

==== Coordination ====
Coordination, also called "mirroring"<ref name="Psychological Inquiry"/> means getting into rhythm with another person, or resembling their verbal or nonverbal behaviors:
; Emotional mirroring : Empathizing with someone's emotional state by being on 'their side'. One listens for key words and problems so one can address and question them to better one's understanding of what the other person is saying and demonstrate empathy towards them.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Mallette |first1=Claire |title=Arnold and Boggs's interpersonal relationships: professional communication skills for Canadian nurses |year=2022 |first2=Olive|last2= Yonge|editor-first1=Elizabeth|editor-last1=Arnold|editor-first2=Kathleen Underman|editor-last2=Boggs |isbn=978-0-323-76366-0 |location=Toronto, Ont. |oclc=1336862012}}</ref>
; Posture mirroring : Matching the tone of a person's body language not through direct imitation (as this can appear as mockery) but through mirroring the general message of their posture and energy.
; Tone and tempo mirroring : Matching the tone, tempo, inflection, and volume of another person's voice.

==== Mutual attentiveness ====
Another way to build rapport is for each partner to indicate their attentiveness to the other.<ref name="Psychological Inquiry"/> This attentiveness may take the form of nonverbal attentiveness, such as looking at the other person,<ref name="Intelligent Virtual Agents"/> nodding at appropriate moments, or physical proximity, as seen in work on teachers' "immediacy" behaviors in the classroom.<ref name="ReferenceC"/> Attentiveness might also be demonstrated through reciprocation of nonverbal behaviors like smiling or nodding, in a similar way to the coordination technique,<ref name="Psychological Inquiry"/> or in the reciprocal sharing of personal details about the other person that signal one's knowledge and attentiveness to their needs.<ref name="Intelligent Virtual Agents"/>

==== Commonality ====
Commonality is the technique of deliberately finding something in common with a person in order to build a sense of camaraderie<ref>{{Cite web |title=Camaraderie |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/camaraderie |access-date=2022-11-27 |website=Merriam-Webster |language=en}}</ref> and trust.
This is done through references to shared interests, dislikes, and experiences. By sharing personal details or self-disclosing personal preferences or information, interlocutors can build commonality, and thus increase rapport.<ref name="Intelligent Virtual Agents"/>

==== Face management ====
Another way to build rapport is through "positive face management",<ref name="Politeness Research">{{cite journal|last1=Spencer-Oatey|first1=Helen|title=(Im)Politeness, Face and Perceptions of Rapport: Unpackaging their Bases and Interrelationships|journal=Politeness Research|date=2005|volume=1|issue=1|pages=95–119|doi=10.1515/jplr.2005.1.1.95|s2cid=144581286}}</ref> (or, more simply: positivity). According to some psychologists,<ref name="Politeness Research"/> we have a need to be seen in a positive light, known as our "face". By managing each other's "face", boosting it when necessary, or reducing negative impacts to it, we build rapport with others.<ref name="Politeness Research"/>

== Maintaining rapport ==
In addition to building rapport, it is important to pay attention to the factors that can undermine rapport. Drawing on [[Helen Spencer-Oatey|Spencer-Oatey]]’s<ref>{{Cite book |last=Spencer-Oatey |first=Helen |title=Culturally Speaking. Culture, Communication and Politeness Theory |publisher=Continuum |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-8264-9310-1 |edition=2nd |location=London |pages=11–47}}</ref> earlier work on rapport management, she and Lazidou<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Spencer-Oatey |first1=Helen |title=Making Working Relationships Work. The TRIPS Toolkit for handling relationship challenges and promoting rapport |last2=Lazidou |first2=Domna |publisher=Castledown |year=2024 |isbn=978-0-6481844-6-1 |location=Melbourne}}</ref> identify six factors or sensitivities that interlocutors need to take into account in order to avoid undermining rapport. Using the acronym GAAFFE, they call these the GAAFFE Triggers:
[[File:Rapport Triggers.jpg|thumb|Rapport triggers]]
Goals: What each person wants to achieve.

Autonomy: The level of autonomy or direction that each person feels comfortable with.

Attention: The level of attention or connection that each person feels comfortable with.

Face: The respect and appreciation that each person wants to be shown.

Fairness: The fair treatment that each person wants to experience.

Ethical Principles: The upholding of ethical standards of behaviour.

The authors maintain that if there is a mismatch between the interlocutors in their interpretations or prioritisation of any of these triggers, rapport will be affected and typically undermined. This will lead to some kind of rapport reaction – an emotional reaction and/or an evaluative reaction.  

==Benefits==
A number of benefits from building interpersonal rapport have been proposed, all of which concern smoother interactions, improved collaboration, and improved interpersonal outcomes,<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref name="ReferenceB"/><ref name="ReferenceC"/> though the specifics differ by the domain. These domains include but are not limited to healthcare, education, business, and social relationships.

In the health domain, provider-patient rapport is often called the "therapeutic alliance" or "therapeutic relationship"—the collaboration quality between provider and patient—which can predict therapy outcomes or patients' treatment adherence.<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Leach|first=Matthew J.|date=2005-11-01|title=Rapport: A key to treatment success|journal=Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice|volume=11|issue=4|pages=262–265|doi=10.1016/j.ctcp.2005.05.005|pmid=16290897|issn=1744-3881}}</ref>

In education, teacher-student rapport is predictive of students' participation in the course, their course retention, their likelihood to take a course in that domain again, and has sometimes been used to predict course outcomes.<ref name="ReferenceC"/> Some have argued that teacher-student rapport is an essential element of what makes an effective teacher, or the ability to manage [[interpersonal relationships]] and build a positive, pro-social, atmosphere of trust and reduced anxiety.<ref name="Teaching of Psychology">{{cite journal|last1=Rogers|first1=Daniel|title=Further Validation of the Learning Alliance Inventory: The Roles of Working Alliance, Rapport, and Immediacy in Student Learning|journal=Teaching of Psychology|date=2015|volume=42|issue=1|pages=19–25|doi=10.1177/0098628314562673|s2cid=145451184}}</ref> Student-student rapport, on the other hand, while largely out of the teacher's ability to control, is also predictive of reduced anxiety in the course, feelings of a supportive class culture, and improved participation in class discussions.<ref name="ReferenceC"/> In these relationships, intentionally building rapport through individual meetings has shown an increase in student engagement and level of comfort in the classroom.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Starcher |first=Keith |date=2011-10-01 |title=Intentionally Building Rapport With Students |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/87567555.2010.516782|url-access=subscription |journal=College Teaching |volume=59 |issue=4 |pages=162 |doi=10.1080/87567555.2010.516782 |s2cid=143097274 |issn=8756-7555}}</ref>

In negotiation, rapport is beneficial for reaching mutually beneficial outcomes,<ref name="ReferenceB"/> as partners are more likely to trust each other and be willing to cooperate and reach a positive outcome. However, interpersonal rapport in negotiation can lead to unethical behavior, particularly in impasse situations, where the interpersonal rapport may influence the negotiators to behave unethically.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Jap|first1=Sandy|last2=Robertson|first2=Diana|last3=Hamilton|first3=Ryan|title=The Dark Side of Rapport: Agent Misbehavior Face-to-Face and Online|journal=Management Science|date=2011|volume=57|issue=9|pages=1610–1622|doi=10.1287/mnsc.1110.1359|ssrn=1789782|s2cid=14594150 |url=https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=lgst_papers|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180719234110/https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=lgst_papers|archive-date=2018-07-19 }}</ref>

In terms of social relationships such as [[friendship]] and romantic relationships,<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |year=2021 |chapter=11.3: Romantic Relationships |title=Communicating to Connect—Interpersonal Communication for Today|chapter-url=https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Communication/Introduction_to_Communication/Communicating_to_Connect_-_Interpersonal_Communication_for_Today_(Usera)/11%3A_Issues_in_Relationships/11.03%3A_Romantic_Relationships |access-date=2022-11-27 |publisher=Social Sciences LibreTexts |editor-first=Daniel|editor-last=Usera|language=en}}</ref> establishing rapport can build trust, increase feelings of closeness, and eliminate certain misunderstandings.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Glesne |first=Corrine |date=1989-01-01 |title=Rapport and friendship in ethnographic research |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/0951839890020105 |journal=International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=45–54 |doi=10.1080/0951839890020105 |issn=0951-8398|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Rapport is necessary in establishing satisfaction and understanding acceptable behaviors in an interpersonal relationship.<ref name=":2" /> Friendships and romantic relationships can overlap with other domains.

==The study of rapport==
To better study how rapport can lead to the above benefits, researchers generally adopt one of three main approaches: self-report surveys given to the participants,<ref name="ReferenceC"/> third-party observations from a naive observer,<ref name="Psychological Inquiry"/> and some form of automated computational detection, using computer vision and machine learning.<ref name="Intelligent Virtual Agents"/>

Self-report surveys typically consist of a set of questions given at the end of an interpersonal interaction, asking the participants to reflect on their relationship with another person and rate various aspects of that relationship, typically on a [[Likert scale]].<ref name="ReferenceB"/><ref name="ReferenceC"/> Though this is the most common approach, it suffers from unreliability of self-report data, such as the issue of separating participants' reflection on a single interaction with their relationship with the other person more broadly.<ref name="Teaching of Psychology"/>

A third-party observer can give a rapport rating to a particular segment (often called a "slice") of such an interaction.<ref name="Psychological Inquiry"/><ref name="Intelligent Virtual Agents"/> Other recent work uses techniques from computer vision, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to computationally detect the level of rapport between members of a dyad.<ref name="Intelligent Virtual Agents"/>

[[File:Sharif Sheikh Ahmed holding a video conference with the Forum for National Parties.jpg|thumb|297x297px|Man holds video conference]]

=== Rapport and Technology ===
In the 21st century, online communication has had a huge impact on how business is conducted and how relationships are formed.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Wood |first1=Andrew F. |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781410611321/online-communication-andrew-wood-matthew-smith|url-access=subscription |title=Online Communication: Linking Technology, Identity, & Culture |last2=Smith |first2=Matthew J. |year=2004 |doi=10.4324/9781410611321|isbn=9781135616021 }}</ref> In [[COVID-19 pandemic|the era of Covid-19]] and the shift to remote work and schooling, the way in which rapport is built has evolved. Communicating solely through online channels challenges rapport building.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Reñosa |first1=Mark Donald C. |last2=Mwamba |first2=Chanda |last3=Meghani |first3=Ankita |last4=West |first4=Nora S. |last5=Hariyani |first5=Shreya |last6=Ddaaki |first6=William |last7=Sharma |first7=Anjali |last8=Beres |first8=Laura K. |last9=McMahon |first9=Shannon |date=2021-01-01 |title=Selfie consents, remote rapport, and Zoom debriefings: collecting qualitative data amid a pandemic in four resource-constrained settings |url=https://gh.bmj.com/content/6/1/e004193 |journal=BMJ Global Health |language=en |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=e004193 |doi=10.1136/bmjgh-2020-004193 |issn=2059-7908 |pmid=33419929|pmc=7798410 }}</ref> Challenges include technical difficulties interrupting video calls and direct messaging, interruptions and distractions from the user's home, a lack of intimacy and the ability to observe one another, lack of eye contact, mundane interactions, and the "pressure of presence".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Weller |first=Susie |date=2017-11-02 |title=Using internet video calls in qualitative (longitudinal) interviews: some implications for rapport |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2016.1269505 |journal=International Journal of Social Research Methodology |volume=20 |issue=6 |pages=613–625 |doi=10.1080/13645579.2016.1269505 |s2cid=152181042 |issn=1364-5579}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Wiktionary|rapport}}
* {{annotated link|[[Empathy]]}}
* {{annotated link|[[Facial resemblance]]}}
* {{annotated link|[[Grok]]}}
* {{annotated link|[[Mirroring (psychology)|Mirroring in psychology]]}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== Further reading ==
* [https://archive.org/details/patientpractitio0004davi/page/131 <!-- quote="Patient practitioner interaction" "communicating to establish rapport". --> Chapter 8. Communicating to establish rapport] – ''Patient Practitioner Interaction: An Experiential Manual for Developing the Art of Health Care''. Carol M. Davis, Helen L. Masin – {{ISBN|978-1-55642-720-6}}

{{Virtues}}

[[Category:Human communication]]
[[Category:Interpersonal relationships]]
[[Category:Nonverbal communication]]
[[Category:Social graces]]