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Teddy bear effect
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The teddy bear effect refers to the phenomenon where a passive listener appears to impart wisdom to a speaker without doing anything other than listening. People who ask someone a question expecting to learn something from the answer often discover the answer for themselves simply through the act of phrasing the question verbally. The listener is compared to a teddy bear because a stuffed animal (or other sufficiently anthropomorphic "listener") would have served the same purpose. The speaker, by analysing their problem to phrase a question in terms the listener can understand, frames the expected answer. For example, a "Why?" question generally has a "Because..." answer. This is the opposite of talking to a brick wall, where the listener does not seem to be paying attention. |
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