Gillian Sandstrom, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Sussex and author of the upcoming book “Once ...

No matter how well-intended the person speaking may be, using certain phrases almost always makes small immediately uncomfortable.

Don’t sweat it if you’re not good at remembering things, including names. “A person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language,” Dale Carnegie wrote in his 1937 ...

You might be waiting for a bus or waiting for a coffee. Maybe you've just bumped into a neighbor, or an old colleague you're struggling to find conversational common ground with. But no matter ...

Have you ever met someone new and felt like the two of you just “clicked.” We “hit it off” is how you might describe the encounter, marveling at how the conversation just flowed even though the two of ...

Social butterflies may thrive at small talk, but many of us dread it. After all, there's only so much talking about the weather or traffic that a person can tolerate. Still, small talk is present at ...

Whether you've just met or been together for decades, these romantic conversation starters can help ignite a spark and keep it alive.

Maryellen MacDonald is professor emerit of psychology and language sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of “More Than Words: How Talking Sharpens the Mind and Shapes Our World.” ...

Keep Talking: Conversations with Our Kids When They Want Us Least but Need Us Most by Jen Shoemaker Davidson is a candid, experience-driven book about staying connected to teenagers through ...