Attention gossip mongers, don't spend so much time on trivial chitchat as they actually dampen one's state of mind.

According to psychologists from the University of Arizona in the United States, a person's well-being is directly related to indulging less in small trivial talks and more in deep and meaningful conversations.

"Profound conversations have the potential to make people happier. The findings suggest that a happy life is social and conversationally deep rather than solitary and superficial," co-author Matthias Mehl said.

The team came to the conclusion after looking into whether happy and unhappy people differed in the kind of conversations they had.

The study, published in Psychological Science journal, found that "the happiest participants had twice as many deep and meaningful conversations and engaged in one third as much small talk as the unhappiest participants".

"Just as self-disclosure can instill a sense of intimacy in a relationship, deep conversations may instill a sense of meaning in interaction with partners," Mehl said.

For the study, a group of volunteers were asked to complete personality and well-being assessments to enable the researchers to gauge how happy or unhappy they were, the Daily Express reported.

Click here to read full article