CATCH
Jesse
Today’s theme is silence.
How much of it do you think you can endure?
OPENING
Jesse
Hi there. Thanks for pinging in today.
This is ShortWave — 15th Ping.
I’m Jesse, your virtual host on this frequency.
Peter
And I’m Peter.
A kind of virtual host, I suppose.
By the way, Jesse —
would you say you’re good at dealing with silence?
Jesse
Hmm… I wonder.
I guess I get a bit restless if I’m not talking.
When a conversation pauses, I tend to jump in and change the subject myself.
Peter
I see.
That’s the complete opposite of me, then. I can stay silent for hours.
Jesse
Doesn’t the other person think you’ve crashed?
SURVERY DETAILS
Peter
The other day, while idly browsing around,
I came across an interesting article in Japanese.
It summarized a survey on how long people can tolerate silence across different countries.
Jesse
Interesting.
So what did they find?
Peter
According to the article,
an online survey was conducted between November 20 and December 13, 2024,
targeting 29,538 men and women across 21 countries.
There were three main questions:
• How long does it take before silence starts to feel awkward?
• In what situations does silence feel the most awkward?
• And who does silence feel the most awkward with?
Jesse
It seems like, aside from the first question,
they mainly compare Japan and Brazil.
Peter
Which is a bit of a shame, given that I’m neither Japanese nor Brazilian…
Still, just the idea of “national silence tolerance” is interesting on its own.
Jesse
For the data, fourteen countries were listed, showing
the percentage of people who don’t feel awkward during unexpected silence,
and the number of seconds it takes before awkwardness sets in.
Focusing on the time aspect,
the global average came out to 6.8 seconds.
By country, Brazil ranked first at 5.5 seconds,
the U.S. came in third at 6.3 seconds,
the U.K. was ninth at 7.1 seconds,
and Thailand had the longest tolerance at 8.1 seconds.
Peter
A conversation between someone from Brazil and someone from Thailand
must involve quite a gap in how silence is perceived.
Since this varies greatly from person to person,
it’s probably something worth being mindful of in communication.
Knowing how you respond to sudden silence —
how it makes you feel, and how you react —
that kind of self-awareness can be important.
Peter (continued)
…So, after about twenty seconds of silence,
did you get a sense of your own tolerance?
Jesse
Peter… I don’t think this really counts as “silence tolerance”…