Just 2% of Conversations End When We Want Them To

A new scientific paper suggests that only around 2% of conversations end when both speakers want them to.

The study was led by Adam Mastroianni, who wanted to know how often people feel stuck in a conversation. He said the research was inspired by his own experience at parties.

First, Mastroianni and a team of researchers at Harvard University conducted an online survey of 806 people. It asked participants to describe a recent face-to-face conversation and how long they had wanted it to last.

Over 66% said they wanted or expected the conversation to end sooner than it did.

Mastroianni then did a second study, this time with 252 student volunteers in a lab. The volunteers, who did not know each other, were put into pairs and asked to chat for between 1 and 45 minutes.

The researchers then asked the pairs about their experience. They found that over 68% of the volunteers wished their conversation had ended sooner than it did — a similar result to the first study.

They also found that people were not very good at guessing how long their partners wanted to talk: participants' estimates of how long their partner wanted the conversation to last were off by about 64%.

After studying the data further, the researchers concluded that many people talk longer than they should because they don't want to seem rude by stopping a conversation too soon.

The study found that only 2% of conversations actually ended exactly when both participants wanted them to — and only 30% ended when just one person wanted them to.

Discussion

1.What are your thoughts on the findings of this study?

2.When was the last time you felt stuck in a conversation?

3.Do you find it easy to talk to people at parties?

4.Who's your favorite person to talk to? Why?

5.What topics do you find easiest to talk about?

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