{"doi":"10.31234/osf.io/p62va","title":"Immediate and Enduring Effects of Deep and Shallow Conversations on Feelings of Closeness in Healthy Adults","abstract":"<p>Social isolation, such as that experienced during the pandemic, is associated with reduced feelings of connectedness with others.  Researchers have developed simple conversational procedures to enhance feelings of connectedness, even between strangers.  In the present controlled study, we used such a procedure to demonstrate that participants report greater feelings of closeness to another individual after a 45-min conversation about “deep” compared to “shallow” topics.  Healthy young adults (N=37) were paired with a same-sex stranger on two sessions separated by at least 2 days. In one session, they were given “deep talk” topics to discuss, and in the other session, the topics were “small talk.”  At the end of each session and again 1 week later, participants rated their partners and their experiences, including how much they liked their partners, their feelings of closeness, and feeling understood. Participants reported liking their deep talk partner more than their small talk partner. They described the deep conversation as being more meaningful and reported feeling closer to their deep talk partner. These effects were evident immediately after the session and remained robust a week later. This study shows that the conversational procedure can be used to assess the two conversations within the same subjects, and that the effects are lasting. Future studies, in both therapeutic and laboratory settings, may shed light on the processes that mediate these feelings of connection.</p>","journal":"PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints)","year":null,"id":37235,"datarank":0.16479184330021646,"base_score":1.0986122886681096,"endowment":1.0986122886681096,"self_citation_contribution":0.16479184330021646,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.16479184330021646,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":2,"citer_count":1,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":187024,"name":"Shahd Smadi","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":187025,"name":"Sonja Lyubomirsky","orcid":"0000-0003-0727-5595","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":187026,"name":"Tang Li","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":126681,"name":"Harriet de Wit","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":187023,"name":"Hanna Molla","orcid":"0000-0002-2971-4512","position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"base_score":1.0986122886681096,"endowment":1.0986122886681096,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"18998881","pmcid":null,"openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W4298624881","authors":[],"funders":[],"total_grants":0,"fwci":0.221,"citation_percentile":0.59800268,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2023,"count":1},{"year":2026,"count":1}],"oa_status":"gold","license":"cc-by","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/p62va","host_type":""},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/p62va","host_type":""},{"url":"https://osf.io/p62va","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"http://doi.org/10.31234/OSF.IO/P62VA","host_type":"repository"}],"fields_of_study":["Attachment and Relationship Dynamics","Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes","Digital Mental Health Interventions"],"mesh_terms":[],"keywords":["Feeling","Closeness","Conversation","Session (web analytics)","Social connectedness","Psychology","Social psychology","Interpersonal communication","Developmental psychology","Communication","Computer science"],"sdg_mappings":[{"sdg_number":0,"sdg_label":"Good health and well-being"}],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-06-10T18:51:36.629037Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}