6 The Ethics of Listening
Chapter Objectives
Students will:
- Explain listening as an ethical obligation.
- Demonstrate an ethical listening attitude by employing several types of listening.
- Illustrate listening to comprehend and retain information.
It is tempting to think that public speaking ethics is only about talking—it is called speaking after all. However, speechmaking is a transactional act between a speaker and an audience; by listening to a speech, you are participating in it. You do that through your feedback to the speaker, such as through your eye contact (or lack thereof), body language, head nods, and so on. You also participate in a speech as a listener by how the speech impacts your own communication. Perhaps you will later use the knowledge gained from the presentation to participate in public dialogue about the topic or to inform another class presentation.
An ethical listener demonstrates responsibility to the speaker and to the society in which they live through how they listen. This chapter explores several characteristics of good, ethical listening. Specifically, we will consider how an ethical orientation to listening includes possessing an ethical listening attitude, listening to comprehend and retain information, and listening for message evaluation.[1]
Enacting an Ethical Listening Attitude
An ethical listening attitude, whereby you approach discourse with an open mind and without fixed opinions, enables and requires you to engage in five types of listening that we explore next: active listening, appreciative listening, empathetic listening, listening to learn, and listening to improve.
Communication scholars sometimes lament that listening is a “lost art.” Perhaps this is related to changes in public communication. You might recall from chapter 2 that unproductive discourse transforms listeners from participants into spectators of public dialogue.
If you are to meaningfully participate in the civic world, you need to avoid the tendency to be a passive recipient of information. Instead, you must strive to practice active, engaged listening.[2] When we say that an ethical listener practices active listening, we mean they participate in the speech act by listening closely, critically, and constructively. An active listener concentrates on what the speaker is saying, thinks about and reflects on the meaning of the speaker’s content, and focuses on the potential of the message rather than on merely tearing it down.
Box 6.1 Types of Listening
A speaker might adopt several different and overlapping orientations to listening depending on their goals, motivations, orientation to the topic, and occasion. Some of the more common and important types of listening include the following:[3]
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Active listening |
An active listener listens closely, critically, and constructively. They concentrate on what the speaker is saying, and think about and reflect on the meaning of the speaker’s message. |
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Appreciative listening |
Appreciative listening is an attitude that allows for the enjoyment of a presentation, its aesthetics, and its style. |
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Empathetic listening |
Empathetic listening seeks to see the message and point from the speaker’s perspective. It adopts a sense of care and responsibility that extends beyond self-interest. |
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Listening to learn |
When listening to learn, one approaches the speech as a learning opportunity, a way to gain new information and perspective. |
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Listening to improve as a speaker |
Listening to improve as a speaker involves concentrating on the speaker’s mechanics—organization, argumentation, source quality, delivery, style—with an eye toward how one can improve one’s own speech performance. |
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Listening to comprehend and retain information |
Listening to comprehend and retain information is an orientation in which the listener seeks to understand and remember the content of the speech. |
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Evaluative listening |
Evaluative listening involves thinking critically about a speech’s content and testing its claims in order to form judgments about its ideas. |
Appreciative listening is an attitude that allows us to enjoy a presentation and its aesthetics. We should appreciate, and even be inspired by, a well-crafted speech when its style and the spirit of its message are pleasant to the ear.[4]
Empathetic listening is ideally suited to deliberative practices, as it considers “the humane aspects of public issues.” As communication scholars Michael Osborne and Suzanne Osborne explain, this listening quality encourages a “closeness” between the listener and speaker and a concern “for others in the immediate or larger cultural audience, who might be affected by his or her words.”[5] This characteristic of listening reflects that we are open to change, that we respect and value the speaker, and that we have a sense of social responsibility that extends beyond self-interest.[6]
Box 6.2 Examples of Empathetic Listening
Think for a moment about a situation when a speaker or audience member was radically different from you. For instance, perhaps you are from an urban area, and a speaker advocated to hunt and fish in certain areas using means you typically reject. You lacked experience or a personal connection to the topic, but empathetic listening allowed you to see the issue from the speaker’s view.
Or imagine being a burgeoning small-business owner engaged in a community discussion about zoning, one that could potentially adversely affect your ability to place your business in a particular location. Empathetic listening means working to understand the issue from the perspective of those who support zoning regulations, despite your personal interest. Practicing empathetic listening means, as best we can, seeing the world through the eyes of another and feeling as they do.
Finally, by listening to learn, you attend closely to what others say to gain knowledge and insights from their arguments and perspectives. When listening to improve as a speaker, you listen to how they present their speeches. Concentrate on the speaker’s structure, development of the argument, and use of quality sources. However, also reflect on speaking techniques: common strategies used to introduce and frame the topic, how the speaker modulates their voice for emphasis, and how they incorporate visual aids.[7] By listening attentively, we can understand the speech and improve our own speaking abilities.
Box 6.3 Your Responsibility and Opportunity as a Listener
Professor W. Norwood Brigance, longtime teacher of speech, textbook author, and leading scholar on rhetoric and democracy, was known to counsel students in a frank and challenging style. Here Brigance offers sharp words on the role and responsibilities of listeners in a public speaking classroom.
Your role while others speak, then, is not to fade into a coma and be merely aware that there is a noise. It is not to be half conscious, dully skim what is said, and rouse yourself when there is a pause, change of pace, an especially emphatic word, or an interesting tidbit. If you listen in these ways, opportunity once gone cannot be recaptured. Rather, when others speak you are in position to say, “Here is the chance to learn without making mistakes, or having to pay for them.”…
First, you want the answer to “What did the speaker say?” That is, you listen to get the idea and determine its worth: What is the speaker talking about? What is his proposition? What is his skeleton of supporting ideas? Are his facts accurate? Can his judgment be trusted?…
Second, you want the answer to “How did the speaker say it?” That is, you listen to discern and evaluate his speaking techniques: What kind of introduction was that? Was he [sic] too slow in getting to that point? Did he make the proposition clear?…Should he have used a summary of that topic? Would not an illustration or comparison have made that point clearer?…He made that point perfectly clear in two minutes; I wonder if I can use that method in my next speech? He certainly knows how to use examples; ought I to look into how to use them better? Note how he drove that topic home with a climax; that’s where I fell down on my last speech.[8]
Ultimately, adopting an ethical listening attitude allows you to get the most from public communication. It reflects an openness and adaptability that is at once ethical and puts you in position to consider a presentation from several different perspectives depending on your goals and circumstances. Such an approach starts with active listening but also is open to practicing appreciative and ethical listening while seeking to learn and improve as a speaker.
Listening to Comprehend and Retain Information
Ethical listening includes listening to comprehend and retain information, or the orientation in which you listen to understand and remember the content of a speech. Only by comprehending an issue—be it the presentation by the wildlife enthusiast or the discussion of zoning discussed in box 6.2—can you intelligently participate in its discussion. Similarly, through retention you can carry your new understanding forward into later conversations on the issue.
You can only comprehend and retain information if you pay attention to speeches. As a listener, you should adopt habits that will improve your attention. Box 6.4 provides specific suggestions to help you understand and remember what speakers share.
Box 6.4 Practicing Ethical Listening: Comprehending and Retaining Information
There are several behaviors and actions you can undertake to be a more ethical listener who desires to effectively comprehend and retain information. These include the following:
- Listen with an open mind: Be receptive to the message.
- Listen actively: Stay mentally alert and engaged with the message.
- Take notes: Remain engaged by writing down key ideas from the presentation.
- Create a speech outline: Chart the speaker’s structure, including noting key sources and supporting material so you might consult and review them later.
- Compose questions: Be prepared to engage the speaker in discussion.
- Check your understanding: Use paraphrasing during discussion to verify your understanding of the speaker’s message (“Did I understand you to mean…” or “Is it your contention that…”).
- Limit distractions: Silence your phone and put away other electronic devices that might distract you during the presentation.
One of the challenges for speakers and audiences today concerns the effective, ethical use of electronic devices. Tablets and laptops facilitate note-taking and interacting with supporting materials. However, these same electronic devices—as well as smartphones—create listening challenges too. A room full of laptops creates obstacles to speaker-audience intimacy as listeners can hide behind screens and type on keyboards. Likewise, they create temptations, as do smartphones, to surf the web and frequent social media sites.
Speakers and listeners must navigate the potential and problems of such electronics together. An increasing number of speakers, for instance, work smartphones into their presentations through the use of QR codes, surveys, and quizzes. Chapter 28 explores the advantages and challenges of similar kinds of audience-interactive visual aids.
For our emphasis here, the ethics of using electronic devices during presentations is often situational, as box 6.5 suggests. When speaking in an educational setting such as a classroom, remember that you want others to listen to your speech; you should extend equal respect by listening to other students’ speeches. It is an ethical responsibility that you listen rather than engage in superfluous use of electronic devices.
Box 6.5 Electronic Devices and Listening: What Are the Ethics?
Should you use a tablet or laptop while listening to a presentation? Is it ever OK to access your smartphone while listening to a speaker?
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Potentially Productive uses of Electronic Devices in a Speaking Situation |
Unproductive uses of Electronic Devices in a Speaking Situation |
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Be mindful that use of electronic devices, even use that we think is discreet (such as looking at a cell phone under a table), can often be seen by the speaker and can disrupt other audience members. Give speakers your attention and respect, and also ensure you can effectively retain and evaluate information.
Listening for Message Evaluation
A final component of ethical listening is message evaluation. Evaluative listening means thinking critically about a speech’s content and testing its claims in 
order to form judgments about its ideas. In this type of listening, we practice critical thinking by evaluating the argument and evidence, we assess source credibility, analyze reasoning patterns and consider logical fallacies, and begin to form our own perspectives on the issues presented.
You should recognize that the three core ethical listening qualities addressed in this chapter correspond with elements of productive discourse discussed in chapter 3. That is, as a democratic participant, you should have an open mind in first considering a public concern (e.g., an ethical listening attitude). Then you must listen to fully understand the issue and possible solutions (e.g., comprehend and retain information). Finally, once you sufficiently understand the issue, you are ready to discuss it and reach a critical judgment (e.g., message evaluation).
Summary
This chapter explored the importance of ethical listening in making public deliberation possible. Listening ethics includes maintaining an ethical listening attitude, comprehending and retaining information, and evaluating the message. Specifically, in this chapter we have observed the following:
- Rhetorical ethics demands ethical listening. As audiences of public discourse, it is our dual responsibility to respect the speaker and to openly, carefully, and critically consider their message.
- There are a variety of ways to ethically practice listening in a public communication setting, including active listening, appreciative listening, empathetic listening, listening to improve, listening to comprehend and retain, and evaluative listening.
- There are a number of strategies we can employ as a listener to more ethically engage with speakers, including practices to enhance attention and retention and steps that lessen distractions and limit unproductive engagement with electronic devices.
Key Terms
active listening
appreciative listening
empathetic listening
ethical listener
ethical listening attitude
evaluative listening
listening to comprehend and retain
listening to improve
listening to learn
Review Questions
- What are three aspects of ethical listening?
- What is an ethical listening attitude, and what are the different types of listening?
- What are ways you can listen to comprehend and retain information? How can electronic devices aid or interfere with such listening?
Discussion Questions
- When listening to speakers, which types of ethical listening do you find easiest to adopt? Most difficult?
- Why can ethical listening be difficult? What are obstacles to ethical listening?
- How can you be a more ethical listener? What practices can become commonplace in your listening efforts?
- How have electronic devices enhanced or impeded your ability to listen to speakers in the past?
- William Norwood Brigance, Speech: Its Techniques and Disciplines in a Free Society (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1952), 86–96. ↵
- Michael Osborne and Suzanne Osborne, The Communication Discipline and the National Issues Forums: Alliance for a Better Public Voice (Dayton, OH: National Issues Forums Institute, 1991), 20. ↵
- Several concepts drawn from Michael Osborne and Suzanne Osborne, The Communication Discipline and the National Issues Forums: Alliance for a Better Public Voice (Dayton, OH: National Issues Forums Institute, 1991). ↵
- Osborne and Osborne, Communication Discipline, 25. ↵
- Osborne and Osborne, Communication Discipline, 26. ↵
- Osborne and Osborne, Communication Discipline, 28–29, 35. ↵
- Brigance, Speech, 89. ↵
- Brigance, Speech, 89. ↵
