The next time you’re at a loss for words at a high society gathering or charity gala dinner, try initiating a conversation about a zombie apocalypse. A new study reveals that this is the top conversation topic at such events, at least in the US. We’ve been for more than our fair share of such affairs and we have to say this has not come up, even once. Not even when Walking Dead was hot. Maybe this is because our dinner circuit is in Asia, typically.

We do admit that it can be challenging to strike up and maintain a conversation with strangers so we’ll certainly keep this advice in mind. Hosts typically seat people who don’t know each other at the same table, to promote networking for one thing and to prevent colleagues from talking about work the whole time.

According to a study by Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, discussing how to survive should the walking dead take over took top spot as favorite dinner party conversation topics. A more uplifting topic of winning the lottery comes a close second. Now this one, we can safely report, does come up.

The US-wide poll of more than 800 adult participants revealed that serious, real-world topics such as life-planning, insurance and salary is taboo and generally shunned at the dinner table. We can also report that this is certainly a fact – such talk is tiresome. Entertaining someone who insists on discussing financial planning is very taxing. On the other hand, the subject of taxes does rear its head sometimes, which is curious.

Back to more frivolous matters, if your thing is to contemplate your preferred superpower if you were a superhero, then you’re in luck; the topic comes in third in the US study. We don’t know how prevalent it is but we can also say that we’ve had this conversation at some point. For our next gala engagement though, we’ll definitely be talking about this study, if not the zombie apocalypse directly.