What's a Question That Can Turn a Stranger into a Friend?
What’s a Question That Can Turn a Stranger into a Friend? Ask: “What’s something you’re excited about these days?” It invites a story, signals care, and opens a path to real connection. Scope & Definition We meet strangers every day—on trains, in lines, at conferences. Most encounters stay shallow because our openers are shallow. “What do you do?” sorts people into bins. “Where are you from?” yields geography, not meaning. A better first move is a question that spotlights energy rather than status: “What’s something you’re excited about these days?” This question works because it’s present-tense (not a résumé), permission-giving (answer can be big or small), and identity-adjacent (values live where excitement lives). Think of it as a social tuning fork. Hit it, and resonance spreads through the conversation. What Can Be Proven / What Cannot Be Proven What we can say with confidence: open-ended questions that invite self-disclosure increase liking and rapport. Asking some...