COMBEMALE: Conversation initiation
Growing up, my parents taught me their golden rule for social interaction: when you meet someone for the first time, make sure never to bring up religion or politics. This seemingly harmless rule betrays a deeply held but little-expressed attitude about personal relations: it is assumed that if the opinions of others differ from our own, particularly on deeply held and personal beliefs like religion or politics, the result of the conversation must be conflict and a failure to find any common ground.