The Elevator Effect

You know the feeling.  You're stuck in a small confined space with a complete stranger and there's a moment of discomfort tinged with terror. Should you say hello?  How many floors do you think it would take to discuss the weather, local news, Monday Night Football scores?  Usually, we end up staring at the numbers above the door, waiting in suspense as 2 progresses to 3 and then on to 4....

Speech seems to be a stress reliever. When we're anxious or uncomfortable or forced into a confined space with a stranger, we want to talk. When we're stressful, we talk quickly and way too much, which explains the dreaded "first-date-foot-in-mouth syndrome." We talk when we want to relax, as we socialize and (as was probably even more the case hundreds of years ago) when we gather together with our friends, kin and coworkers.

Smokers know this phenomenon well, clustered around an ashtray in the snow of February, deftly carrying on multiple three to five minute conversations with people they've never met before.