A study establishes that "social ties" — a fancy way of saying being nice to other, even those you don't know — has benefits.

On a typical day, you experience numerous fleeting exchanges with people you don’t know, often without a word: a quick smile of acknowledgement as someone holds the door, a moment of eye contact to ...

My husband, Don, will talk to anyone. In line at a store, on a plane, in a parking lot; it doesn’t matter where we’re at, he’ll engage. In fact, I have my current job because he was gregarious enough ...