Communicating With Strangers

A supplement to the core text, Communicating with Strangers, also published by McGraw-Hill in 1992, this reader can be used in sociology, anthropology, and business courses that stress intercultural considerations. Mirroring the organization and thrust of the core text, the reader is built around the tenet that we each apply certain preconceptions to people who we meet for the first time, that is, to strangers, often drawing from cultural stereotypes when meeting someone from a background different from our own.

Malcolm Gladwell, host of the podcast Revisionist History and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Outliers, offers a powerful examination of our interactions with strangers and why they often go wrong—now with a new afterword by the author. A Best Book of the Year: The Financial Times, Bloomberg, Chicago Tribune, and Detroit Free Press How did Fidel Castro fool the CIA for a generation? Why did Neville Chamberlain think he could trust Adolf Hitler? Why are campus sexual assaults on the rise? Do television sitcoms teach us something about the way we relate to one another that isn’t true? Talking to Strangers is a classically Gladwellian intellectual adventure, a challenging and controversial excursion through history, psychology, and scandals taken straight from the news. He revisits the deceptions of Bernie Madoff, the trial of Amanda Knox, the suicide of Sylvia Plath, the Jerry Sandusky pedophilia scandal at Penn State University, and the death of Sandra Bland—throwing our understanding of these and other stories into doubt. Something is very wrong, Gladwell argues, with the tools and strategies we use to make sense of people we don’t know. And because we don’t know how to talk to strangers, we are inviting conflict and misunderstanding in ways that have a profound effect on our lives and our world. In his first book since his #1 bestseller David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell has written a gripping guidebook for troubled times.

A “meticulously researched and buoyantly written” (Esquire) look at what happens when we talk to strangers, and why it affects everything from our own health and well-being to the rise and fall of nations in the tradition of Susan Cain’s Quiet and Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens “This lively, searching work makes the case that welcoming ‘others’ isn’t just the bedrock of civilization, it’s the surest path to the best of what life has to offer.”—Ayad Akhtar, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Homeland Elegies In our cities, we stand in silence at the pharmacy and in check-out lines at the grocery store, distracted by our phones, barely acknowledging one another, even as rates of loneliness skyrocket. Online, we retreat into ideological silos reinforced by algorithms designed to serve us only familiar ideas and like-minded users. In our politics, we are increasingly consumed by a fear of people we’ve never met. But what if strangers—so often blamed for our most pressing political, social, and personal problems—are actually the solution? In The Power of Strangers, Joe Keohane sets out on a journey to discover what happens when we bridge the distance between us and people we don’t know. He learns that while we’re wired to sometimes fear, distrust, and even hate strangers, people and societies that have learned to connect with strangers benefit immensely. Digging into a growing body of cutting-edge research on the surprising social and psychological benefits that come from talking to strangers, Keohane finds that even passing interactions can enhance empathy, happiness, and cognitive development, ease loneliness and isolation, and root us in the world, deepening our sense of belonging. And all the while, Keohane gathers practical tips from experts on how to talk to strangers, and tries them out himself in the wild, to awkward, entertaining, and frequently poignant effect. Warm, witty, erudite, and profound, equal parts sweeping history and self-help journey, this deeply researched book will inspire readers to see everything—from major geopolitical shifts to trips to the corner store—in an entirely new light, showing them that talking to strangers isn’t just a way to live; it’s a way to survive.

"If we both exchange one rupee, we have one rupee. But if we both exchange one good thought, we have two good thoughts." Talking to strangers plays a huge ephemeral role in helping us involve and manage communications. We have covered the topic from diverse angles, but if you are keen to read more. Communicating those around us and maintaining our wellbeing requires us to be social within some boundaries, know when, and talk with the people we meet in daily life. No wonder talking to strangers is one of the essential criteria in making new friends. Luckily, it's not just an innate quality: It comprises skills that all of us can acquire and improve on. In this book, you'll learn how to: Things you need to understand about talking to strangers Understand why do people get nervous? How to improve your reactions and interpersonal skills? Dealing with strangers at parties or ceremonies Make friendship with good people. Stopping your kids from Strangers How to end up a conversation with strangers? Ways to get rid of unpleasant conversation and dangerous strangers You recognize different types of communication skills with experiences. You learn the ways of initiating and ending the meetings. These interactions broaden your concepts and groom your personality, and there is a fine boundary in words of good and bad strangers. You should keep that in mind to avoid any undesired problems.