You’re standing in line at the supermarket or drugstore when a stranger speaks up. “Hello, how are you?” the stranger greets you. “Good, and you?” might be your response. Your conversation partner ...

Small talk has a bad reputation. People roll their eyes at it and see it as a dreaded necessity that they need to get out of ...

Charles Duhigg, author of "The Power of Habit," argues that small talk isn't an innate skill, but rather a learned behavior that can be studied and crafted to perfectly suit any situation — whether ...

When Gillian Sandstrom was a graduate student in Toronto more than a decade ago, she encountered a stranger on the subway who was carrying a scrumptious-looking cupcake. Sandstrom had long considered ...

Think about what it's like to be at a birthday dinner where you have to interact with your friend's neighbors for the first time, or what it's like to be waiting for a Zoom to begin with coworkers you ...

Do you dread trading niceties with retail clerks and assorted other strangers when you are out in public? Do you go out of your way to avoid neighbors and co-workers so that you do not have to engage ...

Learning how to get better at small talk might not seem like much of a conversational superpower. Arguably everyone’s least favorite part of socializing, surface-level chitchat can be awkward, ...

The ability to engage in small talk is a superpower for succeeding in a job interview and advancing your career growth. The ability to engage in small talk is a superpower for succeeding in a job ...

People who can't handle small often come off as rude, but there's something deeper under the surface. There’s a big difference between someone who’s antisocial and someone who just doesn’t enjoy small ...

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