Up: [[Questioning]] Created: 2024-01-29 Updated: 2025-01-12 Questions beyond “How are you?” can help us forge stronger and deeper relationships with other people, and understand others’ perspectives. Connection questions tend to be empathetic. [Arthur Aron’s study](https://amorebeautifulquestion.com/36-questions/) of how to create intimacy among strangers involves 36 questions to be used sequentially. They build from superficial to more personal. The study finds that the best way to build intimacy is through back and forth self-disclosure that increases gradually. ### Examples of Connection Questions - What’s the best thing that happened to you today? - What are you excited about in your life right now? - What are you most passionate about? - What’s the most interesting thing about where you grew up? - If you could try anything to solve this, what would you try? And what else? > [!user] Warren Berger in *The Book of Beautiful Questions* - What crossroads are you at? - What would you do if you weren’t afraid? - If you died tonight, what would you regret not doing? - If we meet a year from now, what will we be celebrating? - If the next five years is a chapter in your life, what is that chapter about? - Can you be yourself where you are and still fit in? > [!User] David Brooks in *How to Know a Person* (pp. 90-91) - What is the no, or refusal, you keep postponing? - What have you said yes to that you no longer really believe in? - What is the gift you currently hold in exile? - What forgiveness are you currently withholding? > [!User] Peter Block cited in David Brooks, *How to Know a Person* (p. 91)