Eavesdropping on Happiness: Well-Being Is Related to Having Less Small Talk and More Substantive Conversations
Mehl, Vazire, Holleran & Clark (2010) · Psychological Science, 21(4)
Relied on in 1 place across the academy · 1 stated limit
What it found
Across a week of ambient recordings, the happiest participants had roughly a third less small talk and about twice as many substantive conversations as the least happy.
What it does not show
Correlational, on 79 undergraduates. It does not establish that deeper conversation causes the well-being.
Where we rely on it
1 place in the academy. If this paper turned out to be wrong, this is the list that would have to change. Some of the instructions below are part of Gold; none of the findings are.
In the curriculum · 1
Cited alongside it
Papers that sit under the same topics and films. Not a claim that they agree with each other — only that the same exercises lean on both.
The Liking Gap in Conversations: Do People Like Us More Than We Think?
Boothby, Cooney, Sandstrom & Clark (2018)Mistakenly Seeking Solitude
Epley & Schroeder (2014)It Doesn't Hurt to Ask: Question-Asking Increases Liking
Huang, Yeomans, Brooks, Minson & Gino (2017)Overly Shallow?: Miscalibrated Expectations Create a Barrier to Deeper Conversation
Kardas, Kumar & Epley (2022)Social Interactions and Well-Being: The Surprising Power of Weak Ties
Sandstrom & Dunn (2014)Research
A real study. We tell you what it found, how many people were in it, and what it can't prove.
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