How to Tell If You're Boring

Pretty soon, you’ll probably be drowning in polite holiday chit chat with rarely seen acquaintances, and odds are some of those conversations will be really dull. How can you ensure you’re not the one being boring? Slate breaks down some surefire clues:

• Repeated, perfunctory responses: If they’re saying things like “Oh really? Wow. No kidding,” they’re probably not interested
• Simple questions: The more interested someone is, the more complicated their questions will usually be.

• Imbalance of talking time: If you’re doing 80% of the talking, either you’re insanely charming, or they have nothing to say and they’re praying you’ll shut up faster if they don’t encourage you.
• Changing the topic: If they jump to a new subject, just go along; they obviously didn’t care about the first one.
• Slouching: As any professor could tell you, people who are slouching, fidgeting, or partially turned away from you are not paying attention

(More conversation stories.)