Deliberate memory display can enhance conveyed value

TL;DR

This paper shows that intentionally remembering and mentioning others' details can strengthen relationships and is often underused.

Contribution

The study reveals that deliberate memory display is an underutilized but effective strategy for conveying value in social interactions.

Findings

Memory display effectively conveys value in social contexts like job interviews and ice breakers.

Using memory display enhances the effectiveness of other value-conveying efforts.

Participants underutilized memory display even when it was effective.

Abstract

Letting someone else know that you value their presence, characteristics, effort or activities is central to building and maintaining human relationships. We investigated whether deliberate memory display is an effective means to convey such value. We examined these questions in the context of a simulated job interview (Experiments 1, 2 and 3, total N = 404) and a simulated ‘ice breaker’ exercise between new acquaintances (Experiment 4, total N = 156). Across experiments, results consistently indicated that memory display was not only an effective method of conveying value, but that memory display made other efforts to convey value more effective. Moreover, without external prompting, participants underutilized memory display despite its efficacy. These findings document the efficacy of memory display in the deliberate communication of value and suggest that deliberate memory display might be an underutilized strategic asset in the management of human relationships.

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