Social encounters would not be possible without small talk. Small talk is made up of questions such as “How’s work?” and “Can you believe this weather?” These types of conversations grease the wheels of society. For some people, this might sound fine. But for the woman who knows very few people, this is slowly but steadily draining.
There is a term in psychology called substantive conversation, which refers to a deep, meaningful conversation which goes beyond small talk. According to a study in the journal Psychological Science, the relationship between human happiness and substantive conversation was greater than the correlation between happiness and the number of social interactions. Interestingly, the most contented people had double the amount of substantive conversations compared to the unhappiest ones.