Small talk in videoconferencing improves conversational experience and fosters relationships

Abstract

Small talk plays a big role in conversational perception. In the study here, pairs of conversational participants engaged in three iterations of an ecologically valid task-break dialogue where the break was either small talk via videoconferencing or waiting the same amount of time with cameras and mics turned off. Small talk increased conversational participants’ enjoyment of conversations, their willingness to engage in future conversations with their addressees, and their actual engagement in unprompted conversations with their addressees. Dyads who were instructed to engage in small talk conversation during breaks were approximately three and a half times more likely to have conversations in the sixty second unprompted conversation period at the end of the study compared to dyads whose cameras and mics were off during the earlier break periods. Reciprocity effects previously observed in audio-only and text-only communication were not observed in this study. The findings presented here demonstrate that not only can the positive influence of small talk be replicated and extended to videoconferencing interactions, but such talk can also lead to an increased desire for continued interactions with conversational partners.