Social Relationships and Wellbeing

Social Relationships and Wellbeing

• Science can help understand what makes people happy
• Social relationships positively correlate with a person's wellbeing
• Studies underscore the importance of relationships with others
• Causality requires experiments, random assignment to relationship quality is unethical
• Increase confidence in results by using converging results across multiple samples and methods

The Data on Social Connections

• Strong social ties are important, providing various sources of support
• The Gallup World Poll says, having someone to rely on in times of need is the best happiness predictor
• Having one close tie is equivalent to a 5x increase in household income
• Seeing one's boss at work predicts nearly equal happiness on weekdays and weekends
• Happiest people have good relationships with others, rate close friends highly, and spend more time with others
• Strong social relationships may be necessary for happiness, but not sufficient

The Problem of Poor Social Health and Parenting

• Poor social health is more harmful than traditional risk factors for poor health and death
• Poor social health is more harmful than smoking, obesity, sedentary living, or excessive drinking
• Parenting can be a source of frustrating, rewarding, and time-consuming relationships
• Evidence on the impact of parenting on well-being is mixed

Parenting and Well-being Studies

• Being with kids correlates with some of the least happy moments of the day
• Parents report more meaning and reward in life than non-parents
• Nelson et al. (2013) conducted three mixed-methods studies on parenting
• Study 1 involved a national panel of 6906 adults and reported happiness
• Study 1 looked at parent status (yes/no) and number of children
• Study 1 found parents are generally happier than non-parents
• An increase in number of children correlated with happiness, plus parents are more satisfied
• Happiness is stronger for men than women, plus married parents are happier than unmarried parents
• Study 2 involved contacting 329 adults five times daily for a week
• In study 2, participants reported 19 emotions and global well-being
• Parents reported higher global well-being, momentary happiness, meaning, and lower depression
• This correlation was especially pronounced for fathers
• Study 3 included 186 parents with kids under 18 at home
• Study 3 attempted to overcome selection effects, such as happier people choosing to have kids
• Parents reported positive emotions and meaning in life
• Positive emotions with kids were compared to positive emotions without kids
• Parents reported more positive emotions and meaning when with kids than without

Weak Ties

• Weak ties are relationships with familiar but more distant others
• You don't know them well or disclose personal information to these people
• Weak ties are not complete strangers
• Most work linking ties and happiness examines strong ties
• Weak ties can lead to other outcomes like jobs
• Incidental evidence suggests weak ties have happiness benefits

Weak Ties and Happiness

• Three questions probing the benefits of weak ties:
  • Are people who interact with more weak ties happier?
  • Are people happier on days when they interact with more weak ties?
  • Can interacting with weak ties improve happiness?
• Sandstrom & Dunn (2014a) used a baseline survey to get demographics and personality data
• The study defined strong vs. weak ties and tracked interactions for three consecutive days
• Participants kept track of all strong and weak tie interactions
• Participants completed an evening survey to log their responses
• People with more weak ties tend to be happier and experience greater belonging
• People feel happier on days when they interact with weak ties
• People feel happier and have a greater sense of belonging on days they interact with strong ties
• Weak ties may provide an additional source of happiness and feelings of belonging
• Limitations include not being able to address causality and small sample sizes

Experiments on Social Interaction

• Sandstrom & Dunn (2014b) conducted an experiment with 60 customers at a Starbucks
• Participants were randomly assigned to one interaction style with the barista:
  • Social: genuine interaction with brief conversation
  • Efficient: ready to pay to avoid unnecessary conversation
• Participants reported:
  • Current emotions (PANAS)
  • Satisfaction with purchase
  • Sense of belonging
• People in the social condition reported greater positive emotion, belonging, and satisfaction

Strangers, Summary and Capitalization

• Epley & Shroeder (2014) found that people experience greater enjoyment from talking to a stranger than solitude
• People don't expect to enjoy talking to strangers, thinking it will make them less happy
• Benefits extend to being spoken to, regardless of who starts the conversation
• The effects are not moderated by individual differences
• Social life with meaningful social relationships contributes to greater happiness
• This happens through strong ties, weak ties, and interactions with strangers
• A weakness is that some questions cannot be experimentally tested which precludes causality
• Strengths include an impressive array of mixed methods and samples, in addition to converging findings

Capitalization

• Capitalization is the process through which one shares good news with others
• Capitalization responses include:
  • Active-Constructive (AC): interest, enthusiasm, seeking more information
  • AC leads the speaker to feel understood, validated, and cared for which is related to greater well-being and relationship satisfaction
  • Passive-Constructive (PC): reserved, subtle, uninvolved
  • Active-Destructive (AD): minimizes the event, points out downsides
  • Passive-Destructive (PD): little or no interest, changes the subject
• Gable, Gonzaga, Strachman (2006) studied 79 couples
• They reported relationship satisfaction and disclosed positive and negative events and used self and observer ratings
• Responses to positive events are more predictive of relationship status and breakups
• Active-constructive responses to positive events are most effective
• Reactions to positive events are more important than reactions to difficulties and struggles
• How one responds to others' good news matters