Feeling 'connected' is known to be significant for
personal well-being and happiness. In this study Eric D. Wesselmann
of Purdue University and co-authors Florencia D. Cardoso of the
Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata in Argentina, Samantha Slater of
Ohio
University, and Kipling D. Williams of Purdue describe a study conducted
to investigate just how small a cue
can help someone feel connected. Acording to Wesselman:
"Some of my coauthors have found, for example, that people have reported that they felt bothered sometimes even when a
stranger hasn’t acknowledged them."
The authors designed an experiment to test that with the cooperation of people on campus at Purdue University.
A research assistant walking along a busy path identified a subject, and either:
- met the person’s eyes
- met the subject's eyes and smiled
- looked in the direction of the individual’s eyes - but past, for example, an ear
Wesselmann describes the third approach as "looking at them as if they were air."
After passing the individual the assistant signalled
another experimenter with a thumbs-up behind the back
to stop that person and ask how disconnected they felt from other
people. (One assumes that people on Purdue campus are used to being
asked to
participate in surveys). The people who had eye contact from the
research assistant - with or without a smile - reported feeling less
disconnected
than those who had been looked at as if they weren’t there.
"These are people that you don’t know, just walking by
you, but them looking at you or giving you the air gaze - looking
through
you - seemed to have at least momentary effect. What we find so
interesting about this is that now we can further speak to the power of
human
social connection. It seems to be a very strong phenomenon.
Social Interactions Are Intense Experiences
September 2010 - The most intense positive and negative experiences tend to be associated with social interaction
rather than individual accomplishment, according to research from the University at Buffalo published in Self and Identity.
Co-author Shira Gabriel, PhD, associate professor of psychology, said:
"Most of us spend much of our time and effort focused on
individual achievements such as work, hobbies and schooling. However
this research
suggests that the events that end up being most important in our lives,
the events that bring us the most happiness and also carry the potential
for the most pain, are social events - moments of connecting to others
and feeling their connections to us."
The authors explain that previous social psychological
research into this topic has tended to conclude that independent events
rather than
those involving other individuals are responsible for the strongest
emotional experiences.
The research was based on 376 subjects who participated
in four interrelated studies. The first involved college students asked
to describe
the most positive and negative emotional experience of their lives.
Irrespective of gender, they were much more likely to identify social
rather
than independent events. The second focused on middle-aged participants
asked to describe a recent intense emotional experience with similar
results. The third study was designed to exclude the possibility that
social events simply have greater salience. The fourth found that social
events have far greater impact and reflect the need to belong.
Shira Gabriel concluded:
"...it was not independent events or individual
achievements like winning awards or completing tasks that affected
participants the most, but
the moments when close relationships began or ended; when people fell in
love or found a new friend; when a loved one died or broke their
hearts.
In short, it was the moments of connecting to others that that touched
peoples' lives the most."
* "What Makes Us Feel the Best Also Makes Us Feel the
Worst: The Emotional Impact of Independent and Interdependent
Experiences"
The researchers include principal author Lisa Jaremka, a
doctoral student in psychology at the University of California, Santa
Barbara,
and Mauricio Cavallo, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at the
University of Oklahoma, Norman, both graduates of UB.
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