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There are chatty benches, cafes and buses in places where people are encouraged to sit down and have a chat with others around them.
Rather than having to go to a designated space or time to have a chat, now you can simply put on a Happy to Chat badge and enjoy a conversation with others around you.
You can wear Happy to Chat for however long or short as you wish, whether during your shopping trips, walking in the parks or while waiting for buses, etc.
Happy to Chat badges can be personalised with various designs, covering different topics and in different languages. Happy to Chat is for everyone.
Older adults are vulnerable to poor social health, including loneliness, social isolation, and disconnection. The reasons for this are complex, including individual level factors, i.e. shrinking social networks because of bereavement and frailty of themselves, family and friends, alongside community level and broader factors, i.e. post COVID social anxiety, transport links and opportunities to socialise in public spaces.
To address this challenge, our interdisciplinary research team, combining the disciplines of consumer behaviour, gerontology and public health economics with input from our older people’s public engagement group developed Happy to Chat badges. Using nudge theory, the badge is a novel potential intervention to promote social engagement for older people in community settings, such as using transport, in the park or when out shopping, making social connections easier for all.
Learn More
Dr Harvey Moyne, shares his tips in having a conversation with strangers.
Jasmine, shares her tips on how to end a conversation and what to do when a conversation didn't go as planned.
Nancy, shares her happy to chat experience and why she is supporting this initiative.
John shows how he starts a conversation with strangers in a cafe, at the park and during his shopping trips.
Naomi shares her advice about what you could to do, when talking to people who may need support.
Here we explain how Happy to Chat works at Brunel University London, making our campus a friendlier and more inclusive environment for all.
If you would like to participate in Happy to Chat and get a badge, please leave us your details here and we will try our best to post you one. If you think your community would also benefit from participating in Happy to Chat, why not get in touch? We can discuss how our team could support you and your local community to get everyone chatting together.
Click here to take part in the Happy to Chat research & share your experience with us.
The Happy to Chat research team consists of several Brunel colleagues with spanning interdisciplinary expertise, ranging from Marketing communications and consumer behaviour, Gerontology, Public Health Economics and Public Engagement.
