Ubiquity of the Dull: The Phenomenon of Weather-Related Small talk

One of the most perplexing aspects of the modern workplace is the pervasiveness of weather-related small talk. According to an unscientific poll I recently conducted, 0% of people find the weather an interesting conversation topic. Nevertheless, actual research suggests that 94% have discussed it within the past 6 hours alone.

Just today, I counted myself having no less than three conversations that were some variation on “the weather is weather outside!”

If no one finds it interesting, why do we all do it¹?

Because Evolution

If you’re still searching for the purpose of life, I have good news: evolutionary biologists found it a long time ago. From an evolutionary perspective, our purpose is to survive long enough to have children and pass on our genes. Looking at life through this lens helps us understand how many of the peculiar behaviors people regularly exhibit exist only because they helped us survive in our evolutionary environment.

Was there something in our evolutionary environment that meant people who began conversations with remarks about the weather were more likely to survive long enough to have children? Actually, yes. Prior to the onset of civilization, with our fancy buildings and central air, changing weather was one of the most significant environmental stressors against which we had to adapt.

“Its so cold!” is a much better conversation starter when the answer could be something like “I know! Let’s sleep right up against one another so that we can take advantage of each other’s body warmth” (not to mention the effect that particular answer might have on successfully “passing on your genes”). Furthermore, constant conversation about the weather kept it top of mind, forcing people to brainstorm and share strategies for how to thrive in all sorts of weather conditions.

How to Weather the Weather Small Talk

In the modern world, however, conversations that start with “Its so cold!” rarely turn substantive, so why do they persist? It’s certainly possible that they’re hardwired into human nature and are a vestigial relic of our evolution. They do, however, serve a purpose in the modern day: as a social lubricant, a shared common ground about which everyone can converse. We all experience the weather and have defined (and often strong) preferences about whether we like certain types.

Furthermore, these preferences are relatively consistent across people. Most dislike freezing cold, sweltering heat, and rain. Because there is rarely going to be a substantial difference of opinion when it comes to the weather, the conversation is unlikely to get contentious—it is a “safe” conversation for a workplace setting.

While people generally have similar preferences on what constitutes “good” vs. “bad” weather, every person has a unique perspective on what the weather means for them. The great tragedy of weather small talk is that is to rarely progresses past the stage of observation.

In our evolutionary environment, weather talk was interesting because we often learned something (or ended up sleeping right next to someone for their “warmth”). Today, if this small talk could help us gain information, then there is hope that it might veer into the territory of interesting conversation.

For example, if I complain to a coworker about the downpour outside, and he mentions how his hate of public transport and love of biking resulted in him spending the first ten minutes of his day drying his soaked shoes with a hair dryer, then I’ve learned something about that person², and the conversation was a worthwhile use of time.

So, folks: don’t grimace at the sound of someone remarking about the weather, instead use it as a starting point to pivot to more interesting conversation that uncovers the unique effect the weather has on your conversational counterpart.

Footnotes:

1. When searching for answers to this question, I found a paucity of studies on the topic, though my persistence in searching was influenced by the fact that searching for academic articles on the topic of weather-related small talk just as uninteresting as the small talk itself.
2. That person is me, and that happens far too often.