The Timing and Construction of Preference: A Quantitative Study

Why a pause sounds like no: only gaps of 700 ms or more held clearly more rejections than acceptances.

Kendrick, K. H. & Torreira, F. (2015). The Timing and Construction of Preference: A Quantitative Study. Discourse Processes, 52(4), 255–289.

Type

Journal article

Find it

doi.org/10.1080/0163853x.2014.955997

Checked

Against the abstract, 15 September 2026

Why it is on the list

In 195 responses from telephone calls, most acceptances and rejections came at similar speeds. But once a transition reached 700 ms or more, rejections clearly outnumbered acceptances, and even small departures from a normal gap made a plain “yes” less likely. Listeners have learned the pattern, which is why a slow answer is heard as a reluctant one. Week 4 calls that inference the undocumented timeout.