Monday, February 17, 2014

Why you should put down your smartphone and talk to strangers...

Talking to the stranger in seat 4B on a cross-country flight is often considered one of the torments of air travel, to be avoided at all costs. But new research suggests people are deeply wrong about the misery of striking up conversations on public transit.

Contrary to expectations, people are happier after a conversation with a stranger, the study revealed.

"At least in some cases, people don't seem to be social enough for their own well-being," said study researcher Nicholas Epley, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. "They think that sitting in solitude will be more pleasant than engaging in conversation, when, in fact, the opposite is true."

Epley, author of the book "Mindwise: How We Understand What Others Think, Feel, Believe and Want" (Knopf, 2014), studies social connection. Humans are social animals, he said, to the extent that having more and stronger friends and family connections is linked with a healthier life.

 But in waiting rooms, trains, planes and other public spots, people fail to show their social stripes, Epley told Live Science. During his own commute in Chicago, he sees "highly social animals getting on the train every morning and being remarkably anti-social … They might as well be sitting next to a rock." Full story...

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