Turns out, even boring topics are fun to talk about
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Do you dread making small talk or getting drawn into a dull conversation about the weather?
- Buck up! Conversations about topics people think are boring typically wind up being enjoyable, according to an intriguing study recently published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Why it matters: Social interaction is good for you — plenty of research finds it enhances well-being and makes people feel happy.
- The findings might provide a bit of encouragement to do more yapping.
Zoom in: 1,800 people, a mix of students and working adults, participated in nine experiments conducted in person and over Zoom by researchers from the University of Michigan, Cornell University and global business school INSEAD.
- They were asked to rank their interest in different topics — sports, movies, history. And they were also asked to identify subjects they thought were boring — responses included math, onions(!) and Pokemon.
- Participants were paired up to have conversations. In some, one person thought the topic was interesting and the other did not. In others, both believed the topic was boring.
What they found: People underestimated how fun it was to talk about something boring.
- The findings held up in conversations where the people were already friends, and ones where they were strangers.
What they're saying: "Talking with another person is engaging, regardless of the topic," the study's authors write.
- "What really drives enjoyment is engagement," one of the paper's authors, Elizabeth Trinh, a doctoral student at the University of Michigan, said in a press release from the American Psychological Association, which published the study.
- "Feeling heard, responding to each other and discovering unexpected details about someone's life can make even a mundane topic meaningful," Trinh said.
Case in point: "Seinfeld" fans know that a show about nothing — where an episode centers around friends waiting for a table at a Chinese restaurant — can be hilarious.
- And a conversation about what the French call a Quarter Pounder with cheese — ostensibly boring — can be similarly iconic. ("Pulp Fiction" diehards get it.)
Emily's thought bubble: As someone who's co-hosted a podcast about business and finance for nearly a decade, I'm experienced in having enjoyable conversations about subjects that seem dull on their face.
- We recently talked about the right mix of spices to keep in your spice cabinet — and got a decent amount of listener feedback!
Yes, but: There's no inherently boring topic, says Nicole Thio, a researcher at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, who co-authored the "boring" study.
- They had a whole list — and no matter what the topic was there were always some people who thought certain ones were interesting, she says.
Between the lines: The research lands in the midst of a loneliness epidemic, where people are now connecting less with others in real life.
- People are literally saying fewer words out loud. One recent study found that in each year, between 2005 and 2019, people in the U.S., Europe and Australia spoke about 300 fewer words per day than the previous year. (That's likely because we text more, too.)
- "Speaking less means spending less time connecting with others," the study's co-author said recently.
The bottom line: Get talking!
