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The psychology behind why you dread small talk

4/17/202610 min

Do you avoid small talk in the office, or with your neighbor in the elevator? If so, you might want to give it a chance. According to a study just published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, even when participants were primed that a conversation would be boring, it turned out to be more interesting than they anticipated. Today on the show, we get into that, plus why scientists gave lobsters painkillers, and a clue about the formation of the Grand Canyon. 

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Clips

Do Lobsters Feel Pain?
How Lakes Shaped The Canyon
Zircon Crystals Tell The Story
Small Talk Beats Expectations
The Ethics Of Boiling Lobsters

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

  1. Speaker 00:00

    This message comes from Apple Business. Now you can control how your business shows up across Apple apps. And starting this summer in the US and Canada, you'll have a new way to show up to an even wider audience of potential customers with ads on Apple Maps.

  2. Emily Kwong· Host0:14

    [shortwave music] You're listening to Short Wave from NPR.

  3. Regina Barber· Host0:19

    Hey, Short Wavers, Regina Barber here with my cohost, Emily Kwong.

  4. Emily Kwong· Host0:24

    Hi, Gina.

  5. Regina Barber· Host0:25

    Hey, Em. And we also have Elsa Chang, our beloved colleague out in LA- Aw ... who hosts All Things Considered in her downtime from talking to us.

  6. Emily Kwong· Host0:33

    [laughs] So much downtime.

  7. Regina Barber· Host0:35

    Yeah. [laughs] We're all here for the latest installment of our, like, news roundup, an episode pulling together some of the most interesting studies we found in scientific journals lately.

  8. Emily Kwong· Host0:45

    Yeah, something that's trending on social media that we can do a little truth squatting around.

  9. Regina Barber· Host0:49

    Yep, and this time we've got a whole range of topics.

  10. Emily Kwong· Host0:52

    To start with, Elsa, what is your relationship to small talk?

  11. Elsa Chang· Guest0:56

    I actually love small talk because I am amazing at small talk.

  12. Regina Barber· Host0:59

    [laughs] Oh, I also like small talk. I do like running into you when I visit California.

  13. Emily Kwong· Host1:03

    Our first topic is about the worthiness of small talk. Should we do it? Like, how boring is it really?

  14. Elsa Chang· Guest1:09

    It's not boring. You have to make it not boring.

  15. Regina Barber· Host1:12

    True. True. Speaking of which, like, how much are you looking forward to a conversation about lobsters?

  16. Elsa Chang· Guest1:17

    Ooh. Well, I love to eat lobsters.

  17. Emily Kwong· Host1:19

    Will you though after listening to this science?

  18. Regina Barber· Host1:21

    No, no, no.

  19. Elsa Chang· Guest1:22

    No.

  20. Regina Barber· Host1:22

    Uh- Please don't take another good thing away from me.

  21. Emily Kwong· Host1:25

    We'll, we'll hold your claw through it. Don't worry. [laughs] Um, and we're rounding all of this cool science

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