Deep conversations make you happier

How do you think people are happier? Talking about the meaning of life and the current world situation or conversely having banal conversations about the weather and Big Brother??

A recent study by Matthias Mehl, a psychologist at the University of Arizona, has shown that people who spend much of their day having conversations about deep topics feel happier than those who have uninteresting conversations.

These results may seem contradictory when we consider the saying "Don't worry and be happy." A priori we might think that we will be happier if we put aside certain thorny issues for which there is no clear solution. However, the study shows that the opposite occurs, that is, we will be happier if we fully address these issues.

Study on deep conversations

The study involved 80 people who agreed to wear a tape recorder for 4 days to record all their conversations. Subsequently, a group of researchers classified these conversations as "deep conversations" or "banal conversations".

In a second phase of the experiment, participants were given questionnaires to assess your degree of happiness and satisfaction with life.

The results showed a positive correlation between the happiness scores recorded in the questionnaire and the number of deep conversations identified by the researchers. Namely, the people who scored highest on the happiness questionnaire were those who had had the most in-depth conversations.

The happiest person according to the questionnaire had had 46% of deep conversations during those 4 days compared to 21% of deep conversations of the least happy person. On the contrary, banal conversations had occupied 10% of the time of the happiest person compared to 30% of the time of the least happy person..

In summary

Happiest person: 46% deep conversations + 10% banal conversations

Less happy person: 21% deep conversations + 30% banal conversations

The results did not add up to 100 because there was a conversation component that did not fall into either category (for example, hands-on conversations about shopping, etc.)

The motives

It seems that there are two main reasons why we feel better having deep conversations:

• Human beings need to give our lives meaning. Through deep conversations we try to make sense of a chaotic world and this makes us feel more secure..

• We are social animals that need to connect with other people. Deep conversations make us connect in a much more integrated way with the person in front of us.

The pillars of our happiness are based on feeling safe and integrated.

So now you know, the next time you go to dinner or have coffee with your friends, choose your conversation topics well..