Although we benefit from deep and meaningful conversations that help us build connections with one another, we often stick to small talk with strangers because we underestimate (低估) how much others are interested in our lives and wrongly believe that deep conversations will be more awkward and less enjoyable than they actually are, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.
Nicholas Epley, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and his colleagues designed a series of experiments with more than 1, 800 participants. The researchers asked pairs of people — mainly strangers — to discuss either relatively deep or shallow topics. In the first experiment, people received shallow or deep questions to discuss. Before the conversations, participants predicted how awkward they thought the conversations would be, how connected they thought they would feel to their conversation partner and how much they would enjoy the conversations. Afterward, they rated how awkward the conversations actually were, how connected they actually felt and how much enjoyment they actually experienced.
The researchers found that both deep and shallow conversations felt less awkward than the participants had expected. That effect tended to be stronger for deep conversations.
Deep conversations were also more enjoyable and led to a stronger sense of connection. In the second experiment, participants who had a deep conversation with one partner and a shallow conversation with another partner initially expected to prefer the shallow conversation but actually preferred the deep conversation after having both of them.
“Our participants’ expectations about deep conversations were greatly mistaken in a way that could keep people from interacting deeply with others in their daily lives,” Epley said. “As the pandemic (疫情) wanes and social distance restrictions become less strict, and we all get back to talking with each other again, being aware that others also like deep conversations might lead you to have more pleasant interactions.”
【小题1】What were the participants asked to do in the first experiment?| A．Choose some topics they prefer. | B．Avoid discussing shallow topics. |
| C．Make predictions on their feelings. | D．Classify various types of questions. |
| A．preferred to discuss shallow questions with strangers |
| B．felt very awkward when conducting deep conversations |
| C．underestimated how awkward their strange partners felt |
| D．overestimated the awkwardness of talking with strangers |
| A．It is easier to conduct than making small talk. |
| B．It usually causes a weaker sense of connection. |
| C．It is more enjoyable than having shallow ones. |
| D．It is more awkward than previously expected. |
| A．Worsens. | B．Appears. | C．Spreads. | D．Fades. |
