Although conversing in small talk can sometimes seem trivial or mundane, research suggests that it can help people improve their future interactions with each other, especially as part of a team.
The British study conducted by the University of Warwick brought together 338 participants to take personality and cognitive ability tests before taking part in two strategic games with a partner. Half of the participants (168) had four minutes to converse with their partner before the games while the other half (170) did not speak to each other before.
The results of this small study suggest that brief conversations made a difference in how participants viewed each other and impacted their effectiveness during a challenge with and against their partner.
Before the games, participants were asked to predict what their partners said during the personality test and whether they thought they would cooperate or act selfishly during the games. Those who had engaged in conversation before were more likely to accurately predict their partner’s personality, especially if they were extroverted or introverted.
In a game called “public goods”, participants received 20 pounds to contribute to a common pot. The researchers said that a typical rational strategy for an individual player would contribute nothing in the hope that he would get money from his partner without having to contribute his own. However, participants who engaged in small talk beforehand contributed 30% more than those who did not.
“We find that, for gamers who engage in small talk with their partner, cooperation in public goods play increases when the partner is rated as extroverted,” the study authors wrote in the journal at PLOS One peer review.
Researchers theorize that participants who thought their partners were more outgoing may be due to their own bias in believing that their own outgoing personalities reflect on the people they meet.
“Perceptions about extraversion may be colored by a complementary self-projection bias that makes extroverts prone to project their extraversion or positive effect onto those with whom they interact,” the study authors wrote.
In the second game, which measured competition between participants, players had to ask the researchers for an amount of money between 11 and 20 pounds. They were then asked to guess how much their partners were asking for and if they guessed a pound less than themselves they would receive extra money. The researchers found that those who saw themselves as similar to their partners or equally outgoing after engaging in a conversation had difficulty guessing how much money they were asking for.
Ultimately, the researchers said that while small interactions between them may seem insignificant, they can potentially help us understand different personalities and improve our interactions.
“Through short, seemingly insignificant interactions with others, we become better able to predict the personality of those we speak with, which in turn improves our performance when interacting with them in the future,” the authors said. authors of the study in a press release.