evidence: Decades ago as a freelance writer interviewing sources for magazine articles, I learned the valuable tactic of asking a provocative question, then shutting up. Because many people feel compelled to fill silence with whatever comes to mind, keeping my mouth closed often yielded interesting material. Likewise, allowing long pauses in a conversation might coax additional surprising information to come out. Introverts tend to have an easier time than extroverts tolerating conversational silences, for the following reasons. [...] A pause in talking, however short, can offer a small pocket of peace or rest, a mini-retreat, the suspension of pretense or an opportunity for someone to tune into themselves or for their true self to emerge. It creates space for "What do you really think?" Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, author of Man’s Search for Meaning put it this way: "Between stimulus and response, there is a space. Minimizing small talk, as introverts prefer, also creates such space.