Pausing is helpful in collaborative conversation, as long as they don't go on too long.

Pauses longer than three seconds are awkward, unpleasant, and occasionally even suspicious.

Short pauses encourage assents, which are affirmative statements of understanding such as "uh-huh."

First impressions are enduring, and often engaging. Most people come away from an initial conversation with an impression based not so much on the other person’s appearance, experience, or resume, but how the other person made them feel. Because initial conversations can determine whether conversation partners will talk again, potential partners want to approach a first meeting in a fashion that is likely to spark a second. That means, according to research, take time to share, then time to pause.

The Power of the Pause to Prompt Positivity

Alex B. Van Zant et al. (2025) studied the impact of pausing in collaborative conversations—defined as “cooperative, task-oriented dialogues” where two or more people collaborate in pursuit of a common goal.[i] They studied collaborative conversations, including an examination of customer service calls, and two experiments manipulating the frequency of pauses. They found that long silences........

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