On a typical day, you experience numerous fleeting exchanges with people you don’t know, often without a word: a quick smile of acknowledgement as someone holds the door, a moment of eye contact to ...

Nick Epley was commuting to work at the University of Chicago when he looked across the train and wondered: Why are all these people sitting elbow to elbow ignoring each other? Epley, a professor of ...

Despite the urgent need to improve social connection, practical evidence-based recommendations on how to do so during daily interactions are lacking. One key behavior theorized to facilitate social ...

Recently, I was asked to blurb a book called Once Upon a Stranger. In it, I learned fascinating insights on why talking to strangers can benefit you in ways that even your most intimate relationships ...