Hearing from friends makes them happier than you think!

“Many studies show that maintaining social connections is good for our mental and physical health”, Becky Liu, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh in the United States, said. However, despite its importance, many people severely underestimate how happy they can be to receive a call, message, email or letter from their friends and family. This has been revealed in a research paper published in the journal Journal of Personality and Social PsychologyIt was carried out by researchers at an American university.

More than 5,900 people attended

As part of this work, the scientists sought to understand why some adults lose sight of each other and fail to reconnect. To find out, they conducted a series of experiments involving more than 5,900 participants.

Half of the volunteers were asked to recall the last time they contacted someone close to them to “make up for lost time.” Other adults should remember a situation where someone came to them. They rated on a seven-point scale how much the contact person appreciated the gesture, felt grateful, grateful, or pleased with the contact. In other experiments, participants sent a short message and a small gift to someone in their social circle whom they had not communicated with for some time.

Appreciation and recognition

According to the results, those who recalled “reaching out” to someone close to them thought the small attention they remembered was significantly less appreciated than those who received a message or call. Participants who took the initiative to connect with their friend or family member expressed gratitude and felt happier after this interaction.

In all experiments, the adults who initiated the communication greatly underestimated how much the receivers would appreciate their action. “We found that those who received the message or call placed more emphasis on the element of surprise. This increased emphasis on surprise was associated with greater appreciation.” Becky Liu said A statement.

“False Reluctance”

Despite the desire to reconnect, many adults hesitate to do so because resuming social contact after a long time can seem intimidating. People fear how such a gesture can be received. “This study suggests that their reluctance may be wrong, and others may appreciate being contacted more than you think. Physic, we hope these results will encourage more people to reach out to those they have lost contact with.” We can read in the results of the work.