Friends are good for health, science says!

Friends, friends, colleagues, no matter their exact nature, social interactions would be beneficial for mental health. This is what a new study by American researchers reveals, but states that virtual social interactions do not have the same impact as physical exchanges.

To these results, the researchers followed three cohorts of students for three years, including analysing data on their social interactions and well-being. They went even further by examining the additional role of four different contextual factors, including the partners students interacted with and the channels of communication used.

The social link source of well-being

Published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, their work suggests that interacting with peers, and thus creating social ties, significantly improves well-being.

“Spending more time having substantial and profound conversations with anyone with strong or weak links has beneficial effects on the person’s average well-being levels,” said Mahnaz Roshanaei, a researcher at Stanford University, in a statement.

“Significant social interactions have clear positive effects on emotional well-being, stress, and loneliness.”

Prefer direct contact

Another point is that the context in which these social interactions take place is of particular importance. Scientists have observed better results in terms of well-being when interactions take place in physics compared to virtual exchanges (such as instant messaging or text, for example). And if it is a time to take advantage of interacting with others, it is better that it happens during periods of rest rather than activity.

“In the future, the results of this study can be used to design customized intervention strategies to encourage healthy social life,” concludes Mahnaz Roshanaei. And it is good that the researcher recognizes the need to deepen this research, through more diverse groups of participants.