Others’ signaled openness governs whether one initiates talk

Evidence

I designate as the content—the materials, so to speak—of sociation everything that is present in individuals (the immediately concrete loci of all historical reality)—drive, interest, purpose, inclination, psychic state, movement—everything that is present in them in such a way as to engender or mediate effects upon others or to receive such effects. In themselves, these materials which fill life, these motivations which propel it, are not social. Strictly speaking, neither hunger nor love, work nor religiosity, technology nor the functions and results of intelligence, are social. They are factors in sociation only when they transform the mere aggregation of isolated individuals into specific forms of being with and for one another, forms that are subsumed under the general concept of interaction. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 194 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Displayed busyness signals unavailability to would-be interactors; Identity deception succeeds better amid strangers than friends; Declaring oneself host of a locale legitimizes initiating contact there (+6 more)

Related

• Individual motives become social only through forms of mutual interaction (similarity 0.86)
• Libraries and museums block strangers’ attempts at conversation (similarity 0.81)
• Displayed busyness signals unavailability to would-be interactors (similarity 0.80)
• Mutual eye contact is inherently reciprocal and self-revealing (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Body language overrides even legitimized interaction openings #corroborates (0.75)
• Mutual eye contact is inherently reciprocal and self-revealing #corroborates (0.40)
• Individual motives become social only through forms of mutual interaction #qualifies (0.35) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 194