Neurotypical people tend to favor INTERPRETING over LISTENING.
When I taught communication, this came up often ... the idea that most communication fails were based on MISINTERPRETATION and not an inability to HEAR or LISTEN which are two different things entirely.
There is a lot of ... "This is what I THINK someone is TRYING to MEAN" ... instead of simply LISTENING and HEARING what someone is ACTUALLY SAYING.
However, individual realities mean everyone has different dictionaries ...
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@thewebrecluse This is what looping (or active listening) is good at addressing.
When we have confirmation of communication in the mix, everything gets much clearer, even if it takes longer and feels somewhat stilted.
When people start doing this, and they begin to get a sense of how common they misinterpret someone else's intentions, in big and small ways, it is staggering.