In a guest post “Conversations that matter…make us feel better?” (4/28/10) for the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation blog, www.thataway.org, I wrote about news of a study of college students suggesting that people who have deeper conversations more often are happier than those who do not.
From “Talk Deeply, Be Happy?” in The New York Times’ “Well” blog (3/17/10), by Roni Caryn Rabin:
It may sound counter-intuitive, but people who spend more of their day having deep discussions and less time engaging in small talk seem to be happier, said Matthias Mehl, a psychologist at the University of Arizona who published a study on the subject.
“We found this so interesting, because it could have gone the other way — it could have been, ‘Don’t worry, be happy’ — as long as you surf on the shallow level of life you’re happy, and if you go into the existential depths you’ll be unhappy,” Dr. Mehl said.
As noted in the full blog post, we were intrigued by the findings and implications that deeper conversations may bring more happiness than easier paths of keeping things “light.” There may be something hardwired into us as humans – a craving for meaningful connection, perhaps – a need that must be fulfilled for us to be…fulfilled.
Read the complete post, with additional links, here.
