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• Posted April 14, 2026

Small Talk? It May Be Better Than You Think

You know the kind of conversation: That random chat on an elevator, in a long line at the store or centered on a topic you couldn’t care less about.

You might think chatting about a mundane topic isn’t worth your time, but new research, published recently in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests those conversations can be surprisingly enjoyable.

In nine experiments involving 1,800 individuals, researchers discovered that people regularly underestimated how engaging and enjoyable "boring" conversations could be.

“We tend to assume that if a topic sounds dull, the conversation will be dull too,” lead author Elizabeth Trinh, a doctoral student at the University of Michigan, said in a news release. “But that’s not what people actually experience.” 

To test this, researchers asked participants to talk about topics they personally considered boring. These ranged from serious subjects like history or finance to more everyday topics like hobbies or routines.

After, they were told to have real conversations, some with friends, some with strangers, and then rate how much they actually enjoyed them.

As it turns out, even when both people agreed the topic wasn’t that exciting, the conversations still felt more engaging than they expected.

“We were both surprised and excited by how robust the effect was,” Trinh said. “People consistently expected conversations about seemingly boring topics to be less interesting than they turned out to be.” 

Researchers said this gap comes from how people think about conversations before they even happen. 

While it’s easy to focus on a topic ahead of time, it's much harder to predict how the interaction will transpire as it happens.

“What really drives enjoyment is engagement,” Trinh said. “Feeling heard, responding to each other, and discovering unexpected details about someone’s life can make even a mundane topic meaningful.” 

In short, the connection between people tends to matter more than the subject they’re discussing.

This may help explain why some people avoid casual conversations, and why that might be a missed opportunity.

“If we skip talking to a coworker at the coffee machine, a neighbor in the elevator or a stranger at an event, we may be missing small moments of connection,” Trinh said. “Even a brief conversation about everyday life may be more rewarding than we expect.” 

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on social connection.

SOURCE: American Psychological Association, news release, April 13, 2026