People prefer robots that engage in small talk

While it doesn't exactly come as much of a surprise, a team of researchers from ATR Laboratories
in Kyoto, Japan have found that people are more accepting of robots if
they engage in a little small talk during conversations, as opposed to
leaving unnerving silences that make folks unclear of their intentions.
The researchers also found that of the 38 people surveyed, most were
willing to accept delays in responses of one or two seconds, but that
they much preferred if the robot threw in a "well" or "er" to fill the
gap if it was taking any longer for them to muster up an answer.

Article Link (Engadget)