“Talking through it” is a time-honored way of dealing with problems, and new research shows that people who talk more are happier. But some kinds of talk may be more helpful than others.
Researchers at the University of Arizona and Washington University, St. Louis bugged volunteers with an Electronically Activated Recorder (cutely abbreviated EAR) — a voice-recording device that intermittently recorded “snippets” of participants’ daily lives. The participants wore the recorders for 4 days; researchers found that the happiest people spend 25% less time alone — and 70% more time talking — than the unhappiest. The first part makes intuitive sense — spending time with others, as long as you don’t hate them, can often make you happier. And people who are already unhappy sometimes isolate themselves. But can talking more actually make you happy? Coverage of the study notes that it doesn’t establish causation, but one finding is interesting: The happiest participants had twice as many “substantive” conversations as the unhappiest, with substantive being generally defined as anything that digs deeper than basic small talk.