Small Talk Is Important, and Remote Workers Aren’t Getting Enough

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Science

4.6 • 964 Ratings

🗓️ 25 January 2021

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Learn about why small talk is important for coworkers during the workday; why gossip is actually pretty good for you; and how some frogs survive the winter by literally becoming “frogcicles.”

Small talk during the workday is crucial, and remote workers may not be getting enough of it by Kelsey Donk

Psychology research shows “water cooler talk” can have big benefits. (2020). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-12/uoc--prs120120.php
Guydish, A. J., D’Arcey, J. T., & Fox Tree, J. E. (2020). Reciprocity in Conversation. Language and Speech https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0023830920972742

Gossip Gets A Bad Rap, But It's Actually Pretty Good For You by Ashley Hamer

Brondino, N., Fusar-Poli, L., & Politi, P. (2017). Something to talk about: Gossip increases oxytocin levels in a near real-life situation. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 77, 218–224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2016.12.014
Gossiping Is Good for You, Study Confirms. (2017). Vice.com. https://www.vice.com/en/article/paebgg/gossiping-is-good-for-you-study-confirms
Beck, J. (2014, November 6). Have You Heard? Gossip Is Actually Good and Useful. The Atlantic; theatlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/11/have-you-heard-gossip-is-actually-good-and-useful/382430/
Dunbar, R. I. M. (2004). Gossip in Evolutionary Perspective. Review of General Psychology, 8(2), 100–110. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.8.2.100
Martinescu, E., Janssen, O., & Nijstad, B. A. (2014). Tell Me the Gossip. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40(12), 1668–1680. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167214554916

For some frogs, surviving the winter means becoming a “frogcicle” by Cameron Duke

In Alaska, wood frogs freeze for seven months, thaw and hop away. (2014, July 24). Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-alaskan-frozen-frogs-20140723-story.html
Layne, J., & Lee, R. (1995). Adaptations of frogs to survive freezing. Climate Research, 5, 53–59. https://doi.org/10.3354/cr005053
Live Science Staff. (2012, September 26). Can Frogs Survive Being Frozen? Live Science. https://www.livescience.com/32175-can-frogs-survive-being-frozen.html

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily.
0:04.8	From Curiosity.com, I'm Cody Goff.
0:06.7	And I'm Ashley Hamer.
0:07.8	Today you learn about why Small Talk is important for coworkers during the work day, why
0:12.0	gossip is actually pretty good for you,
0:14.4	and how some frogs survive the winter
0:16.6	by literally becoming frogcicles.
0:19.2	Let's satisfy some curiosity.
0:21.6	These days, when remote workers get together, they tend to enter a video chat with a really specific
0:26.7	goal.
0:27.7	They don't do a lot of so-called water cooler talk.
0:30.8	But according to a new study, that might be the wrong way to go.
0:34.0	It turns out that everyone's job satisfaction benefits when there's time for small talk.
0:40.0	And there's a really specific reason why.
0:42.0	For this study, researchers analyze And there's a really specific reason why.
0:43.0	For this study, researchers analyzed transcripts from a research project called Art Walk Campus,
0:49.0	where people completed tours of public art around Santa Cruz, California.
0:53.3	One person would sit in a lab and give another person directions to different art installations
0:57.8	over the phone.
0:59.3	The activity made time for both task-based conversations, when the first person was giving directions, and
1:05.1	off-task conversations, when the second person was walking to their destination.
1:10.5	While looking at the transcripts, the researchers found that while the person giving directions talked more in on-task conversations, the other person made up for it by speaking more in the off-task conversations.
	...

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