If you do not pay attention, if you start a side conversation, if you look over the person’s shoulder at someone else who is more interesting to you at that moment, if you yawn, if you interrupt with, “I already knew that,” or use a disinterested tone of voice—these are all behaviors that would disrupt the building of that relationship, threaten the speaker’s face, cause potential embarrassment, and lead the speaker to conclude that you are rude, or at least not worth relating to, and should be avoided in the future.
