We often hear that communication with pleasant people not only gives us pleasure, but also improves health. It turns out that you need to meet with friends and family more often? A new study casts doubt on this claim.
Psychological research has repeatedly confirmed that the key components of health and long life are proper nutrition, physical activity, normal sleep and regular communication with significant people.
In addition, philosophers have long noted that the key to happiness and longevity is moderation in everything. Well, it’s obvious. Overeating, albeit with healthy foods, is definitely bad. Excessive exercise is no less dangerous than insufficient. Even a night’s sleep has a “golden mean” – about eight hours, because too much sleep is just as harmful as too little.
What about contact with others? Humans are social beings, we need to interact with our own kind. We live and work in groups, we depend on each other, and communication is one of the basic human needs.
However, while daily contacts at home and at work do a lot of good, they also sometimes lead to stress and unsettle us. In addition to those who surround us every day, we meet friends and relatives who live separately. We go to visit each other, get together, have parties, in a word, we run away from the routine in a good company.
We spend time with people, enjoy their company, and it cheers us up. Research continues to show that the more social contacts we have, the happier we become and the longer we live.
But what if the main advantage of social interaction is moderation – just like with food, exercise and sleep?
Occasional social contact actually lifts your spirits, which is good for your overall well-being.
This question was asked by psychologists from the Netherlands Olga Stavrova and Donning Reng. In their work, an extremely simple hypothesis was tested: are people with frequent social contacts really healthier than others?
To find out if this is true, scientists used data from the latest European Social Survey, which regularly examines the moods, values and well-being of people from 37 countries.
The authors were interested in two points. The first is the number of social contacts: participants indicated how often they meet with colleagues, friends, and relatives. Responses were scored on a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 being ‘never’ and ‘7’ being ‘every day’. The second item is a score of well-being from 1 to 5, where “1” means “very bad” and “5” means “very good.”
The researchers then examined the relationship between the two variables and found a positive correlation. In other words, the level of health increases with the increase in the frequency of contacts. In fact, this once again confirmed the conclusion of many experts, on the basis of which the opinion was formed that active communication is good for health.
At the same time, Stavrova and Reng note that the conclusions based on such data are not entirely reliable, since the correlation analysis provides for a straight-line dependence. Therefore, they decided to test the validity of the previous statement by analyzing the data obtained according to a different principle.
When the experts compared the well-being scores with each of the seven indicators of the frequency of social contacts, the result was different. The graphs clearly showed a significant improvement in well-being even in the interval between “I never communicate”, “less than once a month” and “once a month”.
That is, even rare communication helps us to improve health. Remarkably, the positive effect is markedly reduced when the number of social contacts increases to “a few times a month” and “once a week”. Moreover, there was practically no difference in the assessment of the well-being of those who indicated “several times a week” and “every day”.
Stavrova and Ren attribute their discovery to a phenomenon that economists call “marginal utility.” The term “utility” refers to the benefits derived from consumption.
Let’s say if you’re really hungry, a slice of pizza is a huge benefit. You may even want to eat the second one, but most likely it will not seem as tasty as the first one. And if you eat a third piece, you will probably find out later that it was superfluous.
This study suggests that social contacts also have marginal utility.
Loneliness is a sad experience, and over time, it can cause serious damage to mental and physical health. That is why occasional social contact actually lifts the mood, which is good for overall well-being.
Excessive social activity primarily interferes with a healthy lifestyle
However, the authors note, loneliness is also important for mental health. We all need privacy to reflect on our destiny, and just do what we like. In the hustle and bustle of modern life, many find that there are almost no “windows” left in the calendar of planned social events for themselves.
Communication is good for health, but it has its downsides. After all, social contacts definitely interfere with our daily activities, both at home and at work. No matter how much we develop healthy habits – eating, exercising, sleeping – the regime is somehow violated.
When meeting with friends or relatives, we tend to eat and drink more than usual, and often indulge in high-calorie, “heavy” meals. Communication also often breaks the established schedule of training and sleep.
Although periodic breaks from the routine help to appreciate the benefits of everyday, at first glance, such a monotonous pastime, excessive social activity primarily interferes with a healthy lifestyle.
Twenty-five centuries ago, the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle said that moderation in everything is the key to health and longevity. This means that it is worth eating healthy foods, but not overeating, playing sports, but not overworking, enough sleep … And in communicating with friends and relatives, it is also important to find a “golden mean”.