Slashdot --> post about the study --> a Psychology Blog --> Blackwell Synergy Publishing --> frustrated about copy right articles (that's another topic)
The Psychology Blog summarizes the article as follows:
Psychologists have talked about the importance of body language, physical appearance and clothing but they've not been so keen on what we actually talk about.A recent study put participants in same-sex and opposite-sex pairings and told them to get to know each other over 6 weeks (Rentfrow & Gosling, 2006). Analysing the results, they found the most popular topic of conversation was music...The number of people who talked about music was surprisingly high. In the first week on average 58% of the pairs discussed music compared to 37% of all the other categories of conversation combined. Other categories included books, movies, TV, football and clothes.
My first question is about the demographic. A problem that social science studies faces are internal and external validities. A study can have great experimental control but poor extrapolation to the outside world. Anyway, the results sound reasonable. I remember rating and reading a chat log between two undergraduates, one female and one male who have never meet each other. Actually, I am not entirely clear on the topics. The topic of "what's your year in school and your major" stands on in my mind. I'll go back and read up on it. More thoughts after I read the article. I will be sad when I lose access to the school library.
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