In “Talk,” Alison Wood Brooks mines years of data to optimize your conversations.

Book of the Week. Author and podcaster Malcolm Gladwell asks why we so often get other people wrong. Why is it so hard to detect a lie, read a face or judge a stranger's motives?

Talking to strangers can open up our minds to alternative ... versus those who remained with their head in a book or a screen. It can take some effort, but talking to someone unknown can transform ...

These results suggest that talking to strangers is a critical part of a rich and diverse social life.Hanne Collins, a Harvard Business School PhD student and researcher She offered an example ...