17 Questions For Sparking Fascinating Small Talk, From A Psychologist

When I was younger, I used to joke that I had an STD called Small Talk Disorder. I'd be flummoxed, tongue-tied, checking myself, and then leaving the encounter replaying it in my head. Going through it with an unnecessarily fine-toothed comb and beating myself up, before dreading the next encounter.

While my 30-something-year-old self now understands why this played out on multiple levels—my ADHD brain abhors the sluggishness of boring conversations, my introverted wiring hates meaningless speech that revolves solely around the weather, and my previously socially anxious self had invisible meltdowns every time she socialized—my younger self felt clueless and cursed.

Maybe you share some or all of the above qualities that contributed to my hatred for small talk. Or maybe you're an extrovert and feel that way too because extroverts are not immune to feeling socially anxious.

When I trained as a clinical psychologist, one of my first vows to myself was to walk my talk, the first step of which was to tackle the social anxiety that no one knew about. I stared at the problem from multiple angles, and then I took bestselling author Ramit Sethi's Mental Mastery course, where he likened small talk to part of the rituals of life. He said you don't go to a fancy restaurant, gobble your food, and rush out. As a self-confessed glutton, that, my brain could get. And so I learned to stomach small talk—I didn't like it, but every house has a dustbin.

Most small talk revolves around the weather, "How did you get here?" or "What's your job?" There's only so much you can talk about with the first two, and they don't work on everyone. Asking different questions can subvert the expected, pique curiosity, and help both parties learn to listen more deeply to each other. This forges a sense of connection and intimacy, without the risk of eroding someone else's boundaries or giving too much information.

As an exercise in self-awareness that might bring you a few hearty laughs, consider your own responses to these questions. And if you are a question geek like me, you may have fun crafting questions that suit your style more.

Understandably, it may feel strange asking these questions initially. Start with the lightest ones, and then use the others in response to a conversational tidbit that the other party offers.