88. Juliana Schroeder: Talking to strangers, undersociality, and replicable field studies

Jan 5, 2024

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Juliana Schroder is a professor at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. In this conversation, we talk about her research in which she asks people to talk to strangers, and how this experience is usually a lot more pleasant than people expect. We talk about how the research came to be, what they found, how culture and norms affect the results, how to create robust and replicable field studies, and much more.

BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.

Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon

Timestamps
00:00: The origin of Juliana's studies on talking to strangers
02:15: Why don't people talk to strangers (during commutes)?
05:46: What happens when strangers are forced to talk to each other?
08:47: How to start a conversation
13:31: Cultural differences in talking to strangers
31:19: How to create robust and replicable field studies
48:04: What's next for this line of research?
54:14: A book or paper more people should read
55:26: Something Juliana wishes she'd learnt sooner
57:13: Advice for PhD students/postdocs

Podcast links

Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt

Juliana's links

Website: https://geni.us/schroeder-web
Google Scholar: https://geni.us/schroeder-scholar
Twitter: https://geni.us/schroeder-twt

Ben's links

Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt

References
Boothby, Cooney, Sandstrom & Clark (2018). The liking gap in conversations: Do people like us more than we think? Psychological Science.
Epley (2015). Mindwise: Why we misunderstand what others think, believe, feel, and want.
Epley, Kardas, Zhao, Atir & Schroeder (2022). Undersociality: Miscalibrated social cognition can inhibit social connection. Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
Epley & Schroeder (2014). Mistakenly seeking solitude. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
Kardas, Schroeder & O'Brien (2022). Keep talking: (Mis) understanding the hedonic trajectory of conversation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Roy (1997). The god of small things.
Sandstrom, Boothby & Cooney (2022). Talking to strangers: A week-long intervention reduces psychological barriers to social connection. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
Sandstrom & Boothby (2021). Why do people avoid talking to strangers? A mini meta-analysis of predicted fears and actual experiences talking to a stranger. Self and Identity.
Schroeder, Lyons & Epley (2022). Hello, stranger? Pleasant conversations are preceded by concerns about starting one. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.