Skip the small talk. People who ask deep questions feel more connected than people who talk about superficial topics.
In a 1997 study, State University of New York psychologist Arthur Aron and colleagues separated two groups of undergrads and paired them off, giving each duo 45 minutes to answer a set of questions.
One question set was small talk, and the other was increasingly probing. The people who asked deeper questions felt more connected. Two people who participated in the study even fell in love months later, which is an intriguing – though probably insignificant – result.
