Posted: Mar 16, 2021 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: March 17
According to a newly released study out of the U.S., only two per cent of people are happy with the lengths of conversations they have.(iStock/Getty Images)
Conversation is common, but not easy. That s why computers can pilot an airplane around the world but still can t master small talk.
Turns out, neither can most humans, according to researcher Adam Mastroianni.
A social psychology researcher at Harvard University in Boston, Mass., Mastroianni did a study recently that illuminates just how difficult it is for us to have satisfying conversations.
The study, published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, found that conversations very rarely end when people want them to in fact, only about two per cent of the time. In other words, 98 per cent of the time, people feel conversations are either too long or not long enough.
Dubai: Do you know when to shut up when talking to someone? And how do you know when your conversation buddy already wants you to stop talking?
These are some of the important questions researchers tried to answer in two recent experiments. It’s a established fact that social connection is key to physical and mental well-being, especially in these COVID times.
Overdoing it
And having a good conversation is the main route to that end. But it turns out many of us overdo it. In new experiments, behavioural scientists led by Harvard University’s Adam Mastroianni showed evidence of the propensity of people to yak way. The results show, for one, that chattiness is not really just one characteristic of certain personality types.
Middle-East Arab News and Opinion - Asharq Al-Awsat is the world’s premier pan-Arab daily newspaper, printed simultaneously each day on four continents in 14 cities
Dan Boyce/CPR News
Family physician Katherine Fitting, 70, stands outside the South Park Health Care clinic on Feb. 24, 2021. She is the only general practice doctor in Park County, an area nearly the size of the state of Delaware.
Dr. Katherine Fitting was darting from room to room in the small South Park Health Care facility in Fairplay, giving out doses of the Moderna COVID-19 shot during a recent vaccination drive. This rural area, surrounded by mountain passes difficult to traverse, does not have the facilities to store the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at its requisite sub-zero temperatures.
One man Fitting treated didn’t want to give his name because he said his wife is suspicious of vaccines and didn’t want him getting the shot. Another woman in her late 60s was still immunocompromised after recently beating stage-three cancer. She said she was only getting the shot “because if I get (COVID) now, I’m dead.”
INDIA New England News
By Juan Siliezar
Harvard Staff Writer/The Harvard Gazette
Ever get stuck talking to someone, and you can’t figure out how to get out of it? How about finding yourself in a really interesting conversation but having it end kind of prematurely? You’re not alone, and it’s all because we’re uncoordinated conversationally, anyway.
A new study looking at 932 conversations between pairs of people finds that most conversations don’t end when the participants want them to. Some feel as if conversations are too short while others think they go on far too long, as many folks are undoubtedly, sometimes painfully, aware. In fact only about 2 percent of conversations ended when both people wanted them to, according to the research.