It's TED Talks Daily. I'm Elise Hu. As humans, we learn to read the room. We adapt to social norms. But worrying about being judged can silence us from talking about difficult topics. In today's fascinating talk from technology researcher Anne Scherer at TEDx Zurich in 2020, she dives into how chatbots,

which aren't concerned about social judgment, are used to help humans open up and be more

vulnerable.

Now, a few years back, I was having a barbecue with friends and family. As usual, we talked

about the weather, the good food, or TV shows to watch,

so nothing out of the ordinary. Until one attendee casually mentioned that he and his wife hadn't

had sex in a long time. As you can imagine, what followed was an awkward silence.

Until a six-year-old boy attending the barbecue with his parents

blurted out that his parents had lots of sex

and he could hear them all the time.

And then, the barbecue continued as if nothing had happened.

Now, when I'm not having barbecues,

I am researching how people interact with each other

and how that transfers to their interactions with technologies.

So not all too surprisingly

after this very unique social interaction at the barbecue,

I was left wondering why we, the audience,

were so greatly ignoring what the adult had just so openly shared with us that evening.

So why this silence and then the laughter at the boys' comment?

Well, both of them were breaking a social rule,

never talk about sex, money, or politics at a dinner table.

We assume that an adult knows this rule and sticks to it.

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