Conversations with Strangers on Planes and Trains
If you were standing on the street and a stranger walked up to you and started blabbering perhaps you would want to re-adjust your headphones and walk the other direction. On a plane or train though conversations can often, the not always, be pretty good. A few elements of travel conversation are:
Travel is a natural ice breaker
Unlike regular day to day interaction, traveling is the perfect ice breaker to begin a conversation. When you are sitting beside someone it is not hard to say hi then ask if they are going on a trip or going home. From there, there are a variety of easy routes the conversation can take about the places both people have been, what they think of the place they are flying from, and of course if they have been where they are going. The person beside you traveling is under going the same excitement and it can lead to a bond and the next point.
The excitement of travel puts both people in a good mood
With travel either coming to its conclusion, if one party is going home, or set to commence if the other is going somewhere there is a similar bond. For most people, though not all, the feeling of traveling generally puts them in a good mood. Using a simple geometry of moods if both people are feeling in a good mood it heightens the chance that both people will like each other and converse well.
Why not be open you won’t see the person again
The final element as both people are strangers they have nothing to lose by being open about themselves. Sometimes in other scenarios, the best example being amongst work colleagues, people don’t want to be open because they know they will see the other person again and or afraid of being judged for their view points and likes and dislikes. On a plane that’s not really a worry and as both people are probably feeling in a good mood there is a much better chance that things will take on more depth than a usual conversation. I say these points having personally had several very dynamic conversations on planes and trains.
