#A conversation with friends free

The app - inspired by an insightful conversation with a colleague she’d worked with for years and thought she knew through-and-through (but didn’t) - offers concrete starting points for conversations, so you can get to know the people in your life better.īased on research that went into the app, as well as on ongoing exploration since, Heyman also has some general tips for talking to others better.

#A conversation with friends free

Together with her husband and one of her three children, Heyman developed a free app called “Beyond Small Talk” (for both iOS and Android).

She is also interested in cultural influences on cognition and how people build interpersonal trust. An award-winning teacher and accomplished researcher, she has studied how kids learn to lie and cheat and has, among other things, experimented with reducing racial bias. Heyman specializes in social cognition - or people’s thought processes as they navigate the social world. It’s better to focus on things you have control over, and there is a lot you can do to get better at conversations.” Some people may be better conversationalists to begin with, but Heyman would like to discourage you from “spending much time thinking about ‘natural differences’ in this or other aspects of life,” she said, “because then you start going in unproductive directions like feeling superior or inferior to others. We can improve the way we talk with each other, says UC San Diego psychology professor Gail Heyman.

If you’re like the rest of us and sometimes find yourself wishing you could have better conversations, however, then you’re in the right place. If all of your conversations are fulfilling and none are ever fraught, you can stop reading now - this story isn’t for you.