The Effect of Conversation on Happiness

Dacker Keltner: Why don't people want to start a conversation? He says one possibility is that they think it'll make them less happy. We randomly assign people into one of three experimental conditions, and we have them either connect or sit in solitude. And then afterwards, we ask them about their mood and about pleasantness and about productivity. Dacker: There was no differences in productivity between the conditions. In fact, there's a small effect where people said they felt more energized after talking.