Tag: Quotes

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The Laughter Epidemic: An Example of How Much We’re Connected and Affected by Others’ Emotions

The Laughter Epidemic

The Laughter Epidemic

Tanzania 1962: In a girls’ boarding school in Africa, three students suddenly started laughing uncontrollably. Six weeks later, more than half the school had been infected. The school was closed and people were sent back to their towns and villages. Ten days later, another curious thing happened: the laughter broke out again in a village over 55 miles away, where some of the students lived. 100s more were affected. Other outbreaks started over a wide area, until the epidemic peated out over six months. By then, over 1,000 people had been affected, though they all fully recovered.

 

So why did it happen?

 

Some villagers thought it was caused by radiation poisoning, and doctors were called in to investigate. Their findings: mass psychogenic illness.

 

Emotions of all kinds can spread quickly.

 

How you feel depends on how others feel.

 

In fact, even a friends’ friends’ friend can affect you.

 

We’re biologically hardwired to mimic people around us.

 

By copying others’ outward behavior, we also adopt their inner emotions: your friend feels happy. She smiles. So you smile, and you feel happier. Positive emotions like this can fuel an emotional stampede, which can often last longer than a stampede of negative emotions.

–Excerpt from the above video, “Laughter Epidemic.”

Image: "The three gigglers" by Alan Cleaver.
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What Is Social Contagion? How the Spread of Obesity Is an Example of Social Contagion

What Is Social Contagion?

What Is Social Contagion?

Social contagion is the spread of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors from person to person and among larger groups as affected by shared information and mimicry.

Paul M. Kirsch, “The Influence of Social Contagion and Technology on Epidemic Non-Suicidal Self-Injury,” 2012.

 

The Spread of Obesity: An Example of Social Contagion

Social contagion actually may account for as much, or perhaps, even more of a person’s risk of obesity than genetic and other factors that have been previously studied.

Academic research shows that, at least in the American population, and maybe in the international population as well, that we are all connected to one another by six degrees of separation. Your friends’ friends’ friends’ friends’ friends’ friend, for example, is going to include just about everybody in the population. And what we find, remarkably in the study, is that although the average degree of separation between individuals is six, here your influence extends up to three degrees of separation. And so, halfway, pretty much half the distance into the social network, your health behavior is having an impact on other people.

–Dr. James Fowler in “Obesity and Social Networks – CBS.”

 

Mindless Eating – Explaining Obesity in Terms of Social Contagion

 

Image: "TransparencyCamp 2012 - #tcamp12 social network graph [1/2]" by justgrimes.
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How to Shift from Competitive Individualism to Cooperation for a Greater Good

How to Shift from Competitive Individualism to Cooperation for a Greater Good

How to Shift from Competitive Individualism to Cooperation for a Greater Good

Cooperation—not competition—underpins innovation. To spur creativity, and to encourage people to come up with original ideas, you need to use the lure of the carrot, not fear of the stick. Cooperation is the architect of creativity throughout evolution, from cells to multicellular creatures to anthills to villages to cities. Without cooperation there can be neither construction nor complexity in evolution.

–Martin Nowak with Roger Highfield, SuperCooperators: Altruism, Evolution, and Why We Need Each Other to Succeed.

In recent papers, Dr. Martin Nowak has argued that cooperation is one of the three basic principles of evolution. The other two are mutation and selection. On their own, mutation and selection can transform a species, giving rise to new traits like limbs and eyes. But cooperation is essential for life to evolve to a new level of organization. Single-celled protozoa had to cooperate to give rise to the first multicellular animals. Humans had to cooperate for complex societies to emerge.

“We see this principle everywhere in evolution where interesting things are happening,” Dr. Nowak said.

While cooperation may be central to evolution, however, it poses questions that are not easy to answer. How can competing individuals start to cooperate for the greater good? And how do they continue to cooperate in the face of exploitation? To answer these questions, Dr. Nowak plays games.

 

The B/C>K Equation = When the Benefit-to-Cost (B/C) Ratio of Cooperation Is Greater than the Average Number of People in the Network (K), then Cooperation Emerges

As Dr. Nowak developed his neighborhood game model, he realized it would help him study human cooperation. “The reality is that I’m much more likely to interact with my friends, and they’re much more likely to interact with their friends,” Dr. Nowak said. “So it’s more like a network.”

Dr. Nowak and his colleagues found that when they put players into a network, tight clusters of cooperators emerge, and defectors elsewhere in the network are not able to undermine their altruism. “Even if outside our network there are cheaters, we still help each other a lot,” Dr. Nowak said. That is not to say that cooperation always emerges. Dr. Nowak identified the conditions when it can arise with a simple equation: B/C>K. That is, cooperation will emerge if the benefit-to-cost (B/C) ratio of cooperation is greater than the average number of neighbors (K).

“It’s the simplest possible thing you could have expected, and it’s completely amazing,” he said.

 

Boost Cooperation by Boosting Reputation: Rewarding Cooperators and Shunning Non-Cooperators

Another boost for cooperation comes from reputations. When we decide whether to cooperate, we don’t just rely on our past experiences with that particular person. People can gain reputations that precede them. Dr. Nowak and his colleagues pioneered a version of the Prisoner’s Dilemma in which players acquire reputations. They found that if reputations spread quickly enough, they could increase the chances of cooperation taking hold. Players were less likely to be fooled by defectors and more likely to benefit from cooperation.

In experiments conducted by other scientists with people and animals, Dr. Nowak’s mathematical models seem to fit. Reputation has a powerful effect on how people play games. People who gain a reputation for not cooperating tend to be shunned or punished by other players. Cooperative players get rewarded.

“You help because you know it gives you a reputation of a helpful person, who will be helped,” Dr. Nowak said. “You also look at others and help them according to whether they have helped.”

The above text is excerpted from the article: Carl Zimmer, “In Games, an Insight Into the Rules of Evolution,” The New York Times, July 31, 2007.

 

What Do You Think?

How can competing individuals start to cooperate for the greater good?

How do competing individuals continue to cooperate in the face of exploitation?

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Who Else Wants Long Lasting Happiness, to Use Any Dissatisfaction Optimally for the Best Change, and to Know How to Use What Most Affects Happiness?

Who Else Wants Long Lasting Happiness, to Use Any Dissatisfaction Optimally for the Best Change, and to Know How to Use What Most Affects Happiness?

Who Else Wants Long Lasting Happiness, to Use Any Dissatisfaction Optimally for the Best Change, and to Know How to Use What Most Affects Happiness?

What Does Lasting Happiness Depend On?

Neither Rising Prosperity nor Severe Misfortune Permanently Affect Happiness

  • Research implies that neither rising prosperity nor severe misfortune permanently affect happiness. After a period of adjustment, individuals return to their baseline levels of well-being, leaving humanity on a ‘‘hedonic treadmill’’ (Brickman & Campbell, 1981; Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999; Kahneman, Krueger, Schkade, Schwartz, & Stone, 2004). Similarly, as entire countries become richer, relative gains and losses neutralize each other across populations, bringing no overall increase in the happiness of their citizens (Easterlin, 1974; Kenny, 2004).

 

Neither Individual Efforts nor Social Policy Can Bring Lasting Changes in Happiness

  • Insofar as this set point is biologically determined, neither individual efforts nor social policy can bring lasting changes in happiness.

 

Happiness Depends on Popularly Accepted Social Norms

  • Another explanation for the apparent stability of the aggregate happiness of nations is social comparison theory (Easterlin, 1974, 2003). According to this account, happiness stays the same in the face of rising income because of a shift in reference. If happiness is shaped by one’s relative position in a society, then even if a nation’s overall economy grows, only those with above-average gains will experience rising happiness, and these increases will be offset by decreases among those with below-average gains.

–Ronald Inglehart, Roberto Foa, Christopher Peterson, and Christian Welzel,  “Development, Freedom, and Rising Happiness A Global Perspective” (1981–2007).

 

 

The Functions of Happiness and Dissatisfaction

Happiness Is Functional and Generally Leads to Success

  • Recent research indicates that happiness is functional and generally leads to success.

 

All Organisms are Motivated to Approach Things that Bring Pleasure and Avoid Pain

  • People consider happiness and pleasantness to be conceptually similar, and indeed, they usually experience these two emotions together (Schimmack, 2006). It simply feels good to be happy, and all organisms are motivated to approach things that bring pleasure and to avoid things that bring pain.

 

Happiness = The Most Important Human Attribute

  • In a recent large international survey led by Ed Diener and with over 10,000 respondents from 48 nations (Diener & Oishi, 2006), the average importance rating of happiness was the highest of the 12 possible attributes, with a mean of 8.03 on a 1 to 9 scale (compared with 7.54 for ‘‘success,’’ 7.39 for ‘‘intelligence/knowledge,’’ and 6.84 for ‘‘material wealth’’).

 

Being Happy = Better Job Performance, Higher Income, More Likely to Marry, Longer Life

  • On the basis of this theory, researchers have begun to systematically examine the consequences of happiness beyond simply feeling good. Lyubomirsky, King, and Diener (2005) conducted a meta-analysis of 225 papers on diverse life outcomes in the domains of work, love, and health and found that, in all three domains,
    • Happy people did better on average than did unhappy people. For instance, happy people receive higher job performance assessments from their supervisors (Cropanzano & Wright, 1999) and have more prestigious jobs (Roberts, Caspi,& Moffitt, 2003).
    • In addition, happy people earn higher incomes than do unhappy people, even many years after the initial assessment (Diener, Nickerson, Lucas, & Sandvik, 2002).
    • Happy people are more likely to get married than are their unhappy counterparts (Lucas, Clark, Georgellis, & Diener, 2003), and they are also more satisfied with their marriages (Ruvolo, 1998).
    • Psychologists even live longer if they express more positive emotions and humor in their autobiographies (Pressman, Cohen, & Kollnesher, 2006).

 

Dissatisfaction = Impetus to Make Change in Your Life

  • It is possible to find examples where unpleasant states motivate beneficial action. Consider the work domain. Job dissatisfaction can be thought of as a signal that the work environment does not fit one’s personality and skills. Thus, job dissatisfaction might motivate job change. In fact, a longitudinal study in Switzerland showed that work dissatisfaction predicted job turnover (Semmer, Tschan, Elfering, Kalin, & Grebner, in press) and that those who changed jobs experienced a subsequent increase in job satisfaction in their new job. This study suggests that individuals who are dissatisfied but make efforts to change their life circumstances can improve their satisfaction. Conversely, individuals who consistently experience positive affect and never experience dissatisfaction might be less likely to make a change to improve their life circumstances. Thus, a very high level of satisfaction might lead individuals to fail to attain their full potential.
  • Although positive moods induced in the laboratory are generally associated with more creativity and better cognitive performance (see Fredrickson, 2001; Isen, 1999, for review), in some circumstances, positive moods are associated with inferior cognitive performance. For instance, in a syllogism task, participants in a positive mood condition performed significantly worse than did participants in the control condition (Melton, 1995). Participants in a positive mood condition also performed more poorly at a moral reasoning task than did those in neutral or sad mood conditions (Zarinpoush, Cooper, & Moylan, 2000). Similarly, participants in a positive mood condition performed worse than did participants in control or negative mood conditions in an estimation of correlation task (Sinclair & Marks, 1995). Finally, participants in a positive mood condition were repeatedly shown to use stereotypes in a person-perception task more frequently than did those in a neutral mood condition (e.g., Bodenhausen, Kramer, & Susser, 1994).
  • Thus, these studies suggest that people who experience appropriate amounts of negative affect can adopt their cognitive strategy to the task at hand.
  • Moreover, the literature summarized above suggests that the relation between happiness and various life outcomes may be nonlinear; that is, happier is not always better.
  • Successful individuals are characterized as those who have loving relationships and contribute to society via their work and civic engagements.

–Shigehiro Oishi, Ed Diener and Richard E. Lucas, “The Optimum Level of Well-Being: Can People Be Too Happy?” Perspectives on Psychological Science.

 

What Affects Happiness the Most?

 

The Factor Most Affecting Happiness = Social Connections

The factor most affecting happiness – social connections. In 2008, at the request of the British government and financed by the British Ministry of Science, (New Economic Foundation – NEF), in cooperation with the University of Cambridge, a comprehensive project was carried out, summarizing and comparing studies, identifying which factors affect the citizens’ happiness. The most influential factor is social connections. Out of the 5 recommendations suggested, 2 of them are directly connected to social relationships.

–Jody Aked, Nic Marks, Corrina Cordon, Sam Thompson, “Five Ways to Well-Being.” The New Economics Foundation.

 

Social Factors = More Important Factor for Happiness than Income

Happier countries tend to be richer countries. But more important for happiness than income are social factors like the strength of social support, the absence of corruption and the degree of personal freedom.

— “First World Happiness Report Launched at the United Nations.” The Earth Institute: Columbia University.

 

Problem: We Often Do Not Recognize the Importance of Social Connection as a Leading Factor for Happiness in Our Lives

Studies indicate that “social capital” (connections within and between social networks) is one of the biggest predictors for health, happiness, and longevity. The problem is that we often do not recognize the importance of social connection. Our culture values hard work, success, and wealth. We do not set aside enough time for social ties because we think security lies in material things rather than other people. The truth of the matter is that people have better survival rates for diseases when they have social support. If you don’t belong to a group and you join one now, you’ll cut your chance of dying in half for the next year.

–Cecile Andrews, “Social Ties are Good for Your Health.” Stanford University.

 

What Do You Think?

  • In a society with competitive individualistic values of individuals working to gain in wealth and prosperity against other individuals, how does this affect the level of happiness?
  • Why do you think happier people generally have better job performance, higher income, are more likely to marry, and live longer?
  • How can dissatisfaction with a certain life situation be used advantageously to make a change in your life? What kind of change would be the optimal one?
  • As more and more research finds that social connections are the most important factor affecting people’s happiness, what is something you can see in your life that correlates to this idea, that social connections are what affects happiness the most?

Please write your answers in the comments below!

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What Is Flow Experience? Can We Help Each Other Experience Flow More Often Than What Is Described Here?

What Is a Flow Experience? How Can We Help Each Other Achieve a Flow Experience More Often?

What Is a Flow Experience? How Can We Help Each Other Achieve a Flow Experience More Often?

When you are really involved in this completely engaging process of creating something new, you do not have enough attention left over to monitor how your body feels, or your problems at home.

You cannot feel even that you’re hungry or tired.

Your body disappears, your identity disappears from your consciousness, because you don’t have enough attention, like none of us do, to really do well something that requires a lot of concentration, and at the same time to feel that you exist.

So existence is temporarily suspended.

This automatic, spontaneous process that is being described can only happen to someone who is very well trained and who has developed technique. And it has become a kind of a truism in the study of creativity that you cannot be creating anything with less than 10 years of technical-knowledge immersion in a particular field.

Whether it is mathematics or music, it takes that long to be able to begin to change something in a way that it is better than what was there before. Now, when that happens, he says the music just flows out.

This is the flow experience, and it happens in different realms.

–Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the TED Talk “Flow, The Secret to Happiness.” All quotes in this post are from this TED talk, which can be viewed also at the bottom of this post.

 

Flow Experience for a Poet

For instance, a poet describes it in this form. This is by a student of mine who interviewed some of the leading writers and poets in the United States. And it describes the same effortless, spontaneous feeling that you get when you enter into this ecstatic state. This poet describes it as opening a door that floats in the sky — a very similar description to what Albert Einstein gave as to how he imagined the forces of relativity, when he was struggling with trying to understand how it worked.

 

Flow Experience for an Athlete

But it happens in other activities. For instance, this is another student of mine, Susan Jackson from Australia, who did work with some of the leading athletes in the world. And you see here in this description of an Olympic skater, the same essential description of the phenomenology of the inner state of the person. You don’t think; it goes automatically, if you merge yourself with the music, and so forth.

 

Flow Experience for CEOs

It happens also, actually, in the most recent book I wrote, called “Good Business,” where I interviewed some of the CEOs who had been nominated by their peers as being both very successful and very ethical, very socially responsible. You see that these people define success as something that helps others and at the same time makes you feel happy as you are working at it. And like all of these successful and responsible CEOs say, you can’t have just one of these things be successful if you want a meaningful and successful job. Anita Roddick is another one of these CEOs we interviewed. She is the founder of Body Shop, the natural cosmetics king. It’s kind of a passion that comes from doing the best and having flow while you’re working.

This is an interesting little quote from Masaru Ibuka, who was at that time starting out Sony without any money, without a product — they didn’t have a product, they didn’t have anything, but they had an idea. And the idea he had was to establish a place of work where engineers can feel the joy of technological innovation, be aware of their mission to society and work to their heart’s content. I couldn’t improve on this as a good example of how flow enters the workplace.

 

Flow Experience during Work

Now, when we do studies — we have, with other colleagues around the world, done over 8,000 interviews of people — from Dominican monks, to blind nuns, to Himalayan climbers, to Navajo shepherds — who enjoy their work. And regardless of the culture, regardless of education or whatever, there are these seven conditions that seem to be there when a person is in flow. There’s this focus that, once it becomes intense, leads to a sense of ecstasy, a sense of clarity: you know exactly what you want to do from one moment to the other; you get immediate feedback. You know that what you need to do is possible to do, even though difficult, and sense of time disappears, you forget yourself, you feel part of something larger. And once the conditions are present, what you are doing becomes worth doing for its own sake.

 

7 Conditions of Flow Experience

1. Completely involved in what you are doing – focused, concentrated.

2. A sense of ecstasy – of being outside everyday reality.

3. Great inner clarity – knowing what needs to be done, and how well you are doing.

4. Knowing that the activity is doable – that our skills are adequate to the task.

5. A sense of serenity – no worries about oneself, and a feeling of growing beyond the boundaries of the ego.

6. Timelessness – thoroughly focused on the present, hours seem to pass by in minutes.

7. Intrinsic motivation – whatever produces flow becomes it own reward.

 

What Do You Think?

What could help people have a flow experience regardless of their profession or skill?

Is there a common flow experience we could all help each other achieve, and thus experience this exalted state much more often, and not in connection to our profession or skills? If there is, how could we achieve that?

Please write your answers in the comments below!

 

Watch Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – Flow, The Secret to Happiness [TED Talk] »

Image: "The Flow of Water" by "John T. Howard."
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12 Ways Positive Social Connections in the Workplace Increases Business Success

12 Ways Positive Social Connections in the Workplace Increases Business Success

12 Ways Positive Social Connections in the Workplace Increases Business Success

1) More Positive Emotions = More Productivity & Creativity

Whether we looked at entrepreneurial startups or large, established enterprises, the same holds true: People are more productive and creative when they have more positive emotions.

–Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer, The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work, 2011.

 

2) Negative Emotions Have the Opposite Effect

We find that human happiness has large and positive causal effects on productivity. Positive emotions appear to invigorate human beings, while negative emotions have the opposite effect.

–Economist Team led by Andrew Oswald, Warwick Business School, July 2010, in “A New Happiness Equation: Worker + Happiness = Improved Productivity.”

 

3) Positive Workplace Interactions = Improved Employee Health

Positive social interactions at work have been shown to boost employee health, e.g. by lowering heart rate and blood pressure, and by strengthening the immune system. Happy employees also make for a more congenial workplace and improved customer service. Employees in positive moods are more willing to help peers and to provide customer service on their own accord. What’s more, compassionate, friendly, and supportive co-workers tend to build higher-quality relationships with others at work. In doing so, they boost co-workers’ productivity levels and increase coworkers’ feeling of social connection, as well as their commitment to the workplace and their levels of engagement with their job.

–Emma Seppala, “Why Compassion in Business Makes Sense,” Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, April 2013.

 

4) Business Success Depends on Empathetic Leaders

Business success depends on empathetic leaders who are able to adapt, build on the strengths around them, and relate to their environment.

–Jason Boyers, “Why Empathy Is the Force That Moves Business Forward,” Forbes, May 2013.

 

5) Happy Employees = Happy Customers and Happy Shareholders

Loyal, passionate employees bring a company as much benefit as loyal, passionate customers. They stay longer, work harder, work more creatively, and find ways to go the extra mile. They bring you more great employees. And that spreads even more happiness — happiness for employees, for customers, and for shareholders.

–Rob Markey, “Transform Your Employees into Passionate Advocates,” Harvard Business Review, January 2012.

 

6) The Frequency Employees Help One Another Predicts Sales Revenues

Evidence from studies led by Indiana University’s Philip Podsakoff demonstrates that the frequency with which employees help one another predicts sales revenues in pharmaceutical units and retail stores; profits, costs, and customer service in banks; creativity in consulting and engineering firms; productivity in paper mills; and revenues, operating efficiency, customer satisfaction, and performance quality in restaurants.

–Adam Grant, “Givers Take All: The Hidden Dimension of Corporate Culture,” McKinsey & Company, April 2013.

 

7) 5 Ways Organizational Effectiveness Is Increased When Employees Freely Contribute Their Knowledge and Skills to Others

Across these diverse contexts, organizations benefit when employees freely contribute their knowledge and skills to others. Podsakoff’s research suggests that this helping-behavior facilitates organizational effectiveness by:

  • enabling employees to solve problems and get work done faster
  • enhancing team cohesion and coordination
  • ensuring that expertise is transferred from experienced to new employees
  • reducing variability in performance when some members are overloaded or distracted
  • establishing an environment in which customers and suppliers feel that their needs are the organization’s top priority

–Adam Grant, “Givers Take All: The Hidden Dimension of Corporate Culture,” McKinsey & Company, April 2013.

 

8) More Cooperative Work Teams = More Accuracy in the Work Done

In a landmark study led by Michael Johnson at the University of Washington, participants worked in teams that received either cooperative or competitive incentives for completing difficult tasks. For teams receiving cooperative incentives, cash prizes went to the highest-performing team as a whole, prompting members to work together as givers. In competitive teams, cash prizes went to the highest-performing individual within each team, encouraging a taker culture. The result? The competitive teams finished their tasks faster than the cooperative teams did, but less accurately, as members withheld critical information from each other.

–Adam Grant, “Givers Take All: The Hidden Dimension of Corporate Culture,” McKinsey & Company, April 2013.

 

9) Diversity in the Workforce Is Necessary to Drive Innovation and Promote Creativity

A diverse and inclusive workforce is necessary to drive innovation and promote creativity – 85% of respondents agreed (48% strongly so) that diversity is crucial to gaining the perspectives and ideas that foster innovation.

–Debbie Weathers, “Forbes Insights Study Identifies Strong Link between Diverse Talent and Innovation,” Forbes Insights, July 2011.

 

10) Different Experiences and Different Perspectives Build the Foundation Necessary to Compete on a Global Scale

Companies have realized that diversity and inclusion are no longer separate from other parts of the business. Organizations in the survey understand that different experiences and different perspectives build the foundation necessary to compete on a global scale.

–Debbie Weathers, “Forbes Insights Study Identifies Strong Link between Diverse Talent and Innovation,” Forbes Insights, July 2011.

 

11) The Ability to Deal with People = the Highest Value

The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee, and I will pay more for that ability than for any other under the sun.

–John D. Rockefeller Senior, stated while setting up the Standard Oil Company.

12) Effective Engagement of Employees = Higher Productivity and Better Financial Outcomes

The most successful organizations effectively engage their employees, leading to higher productivity and better financial outcomes. …

When organizations successfully engage their customers and their employees, they experience a 240% boost in performance-related business outcomes compared with an organization with neither engaged employees nor engaged customers. …

Actively disengaged employees alone cost the U.S. between $450 billion to $550 billion each year in lost productivity, and are more likely than engaged employees to steal from their companies, negatively influence their coworkers, miss workdays, and drive customers away.

–Gallup research, “The State of the American Workplace: Employee Engagement Insights for U.S. Business Leaders.” Gallup, 2013.

Image: "Corporate Express Meeting" by Office Now.
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15 Reasons Why More Positive Social Connections are Good for Your Health

15 Reasons Why More Positive Social Connections are Good for Your Health

15 Reasons Why More Positive Social Connections are Good for Your Health

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

—The World Health Organization’s Definition of Health

 

1) The Problem of Overseeing the Importance of Social Connection

We often do not recognize the importance of social connection. Our culture values hard work, success, and wealth, so it’s no surprise some of us do not set aside enough time for social ties when we think security lies in material things rather than other people.¹

 

2) The Problem of Loneliness

Olds and Schwartz (Associate Clinical Professors of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School) argue in The Lonely American that loneliness is often mistaken for depression. Instead of connecting with others, we consume a pill. Being lonely is outside of our individualistic world view so we don’t even see it as a problem. ¹

 

3) More Social Connection = More Active Democracy

Harvard’s Robert Putnam writes about social capital in his book, Bowling Alone, and shows how social ties are not only important for personal well-being, but also for our democracy. To paraphrase Putnam, “the culture in which people talk to each other over the back fence is the culture in which people vote.” Apparently, when you feel part of a group, you’re more likely to contribute to it — such as by voting. ¹

 

4) Social Connection Is Central to Progressive Social Change

UC Berkeley’s George Lakoff has said that we can only bring about progressive social change by evoking empathy. You can’t get people to change by loading them up with facts or shaking your finger at them. You must talk to others with respect and caring — and then you connect. Social capital is thus central to progressive social change. ¹

 

5) More Social Connection = Better for the Environment

Environmentalist and author Bill McKibben says that we won’t have sustainability without community. Until we see other people as our main source of security, we’ll keep turning to things, using up oil and other resources and heating and polluting the planet. Until we have community in our neighborhoods, we’ll keep going to the mall for our evening’s entertainment. ¹

 

6) More Social Connection = More Happiness

In the book The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies, by Robert E. Lane, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Yale, he brings together much of the research done on social capital over the last several years and shows how social ties not only affect our personal health, but also our societal health. He observes that as prosperity in a society increases, social solidarity decreases. Happiness not only declines, people become more distrustful of each other as well as their political institutions. Lane argues that we must alter our priorities; we must increase our levels of companionship even at the risk of reducing our income. ¹

 

7) Social Integration = Reduced Mortality Risks and Better Mental Health

A search of the literature published since the mid-1970s (under the MEDLINE key words, “social ties,” “social network,” “social isolation,” “social environment”) presented strong evidence that social integration leads to reduced mortality risks, and to a better state of mental health. … Available data suggest that, although social integration is generally associated with better health outcomes, the quality of existing ties also appears to influence the extent of such health benefits. Clearly, individuals’ networks of social relationships represent dynamic and complex social systems that affect health outcomes.²

 

8) Social Isolation and Nonsupportive Social Interactions = Lower Immune Function and Higher Heart Rate

Social isolation and nonsupportive social interactions can result in lower immune function and higher neuroendocrine and cardiovascular activity while socially supportive interactions have the opposite effects. ²

 

9) Strong Social Relationships = A Longer Life

Researchers analyzed 148 studies that examined the effect of social relationships and death risk. Together, these studies included 308,849 people who were followed for about 7.5 years on average. People were 50% more likely to be alive if they had strong social relationships. This finding held regardless of age, gender, or health status and for all causes of death.³

 

10) Seniors Living in Better Social Conditions are Also Physically More Mobile

In a study of 14,000 adults in Southeastern Pennsylvania, after measuring the levels of mobility among the seniors living in those neighborhoods, it was found that those living in areas with greater social capital had significantly higher physical mobility scores than those living in lower social capital neighborhoods.4

 

11) More Social Connection in Your Neighborhood = More Likely to Treat Diseases Earlier

In a study looking at how social capital related to positive health-seeking behavior – specifically getting recommended cancer screenings – although this study was not focused only on the elderly, it was found that in neighborhoods with higher levels of social capital, adults were 10-22 percent more likely to get screened at the recommended ages, suggesting earlier diagnoses and treatment for serious diseases.4

 

12) More Social Connection = Better Cognitive Functioning

In a study that looked at how social activity affected cognitive decline, over 1,100 seniors without dementia at baseline were measured on their social activity levels and then tested periodically on their cognitive functioning over a 12-year period. The rate of cognitive decline was 70 percent less in people with frequent social contact than those with low social activity.4

 

13) More Social Connection = Lower Levels of Disability

In a study that looked at a community-based cohort of older people free of dementia and measured social activity levels and their disability levels—in terms of their ability to care for themselves, findings showed that those with more frequent social activity maintained lower levels of disability in several areas, suggesting that they would be able to live independently longer than their less social counterparts.4

 

14) Social Isolation = Increased Mortality Risk

There is now a substantial body of evidence that indicates that the extent to which social relationships are strong and supportive is related to the health of individuals who live within such social contexts. A review of population-based research on mortality risk over the last 20 years indicates that people who are isolated are at increased mortality risk from a number of causes.

–Source: Lisa F. Berkman, “The Role of Social Relations in Health Promotion.” Psychosomatic Medicine.

 

15) 12 Ways Loneliness Is Bad for Your Health

According to the research of Dr. John Cacioppo, loneliness has a major impact on your overall health – both mental and physical.

In his research, Dr. Cacioppo employed brain scans, monitoring of autonomic and neuroendocrine processes, and assays of immune function to test the influence that social connection has upon our health. His research showed how our perceptions, behavior and physiology are strongly affected by a loss of that connection.

Dr. Cacoppo’s research has shown that loneliness can cause:

  • an increase in your blood pressure
  • an increase in your level of stress and cortisol production
  • a negative impact on your immune system
  • an inability to get a good night’s sleep
  • an increased level of depression and anxiety
  • an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease
  • a reduction in your will to exercise
  • an increase in your cravings for comforting foods high in processed carbohydrates
  • an increase in caloric consumption
  • an increase in alcohol consumption
  • an increase in the consumption of a variety of drugs…both legal and illegal, and…
  • a feeling of sadness that feeds upon itself, causing even more isolation and an even greater sense of loneliness.

Source: Douglas Robb, “Loneliness Worse for Your Health than Smoking and Obesity.” Health Habits.

 

Sources:

¹ Cecile Andrews, “Social Ties are Good for You.” Stanford University.

² Teresa E. Seeman, “Social Ties and Health: The Benefits of Social Integration.” Annals of Epidemiology: The Official Journal of the American College of Epidemiology.

³ Denise Mann, “Social Ties Can Add Years to Your Life.” WebMD.

4 Jill Suttie, “How Social Connections Keep Seniors Healthy.” Greater Good: The Science of a More Meaningful Life.

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Four Quotes from the Four Horsemen Documentary to Inspire Support, Love, Assistance & Cooperation

Four Horsemen - Feature Documentary

Four Horsemen - Feature Documentary

1. We Can Be the Best Source of Support, Love, Assistance & Cooperation

In any species, in almost any animal, there is always the potential for huge conflict, because with any species, all members of that species have the same needs. So they might fight each other for food, shelter, nest sites, territory, sexual partners, all those kinds of things. But human beings have always had the other possibility. We have the possibility to be the best source of support, love, assistance and cooperation, much more so than any other animal… and so other people can be the best or the worst. You can be my worst rival, or my best source of support.

“Four Horsemen – Feature Documentary – Official Version.” 1:07:27 – 1:08:10

2. What Really Makes Us Happy?

What’s really suffered is human relationships, family life, the things that really matter to us. In the end, the only thing that makes human beings happy isn’t money, it’s very clear that you only get marginal gains from wealth. What really makes us happy is other people. It’s our relationships with other people that are really being damaged by the last thirty years. We trust them less; we have less interaction with them; we bond less than ever before; we marry less and marriages are under more threat than ever before, and all the associations that represent permanent unconditional human affection are being eroded or damaged. That’s the real legacy of the last thirty years. In some sense, we’ve got to recover and rehumanize our lives, otherwise not only will they be nasty, brutish and short, but they’ll be lonely.

Phillip Blond, Director of ResPublica in “Four Horsemen – Feature Documentary – Official Version.” 1:10:08 – 1:11:05

3. Human Beings are Alive because they Seek Attachment & Because they’re Propelled by Affection

The West is coming to the realization that its human project is failing. The West was so convinced that if you push people to achieve as individuals, that accumulated achievement of individuals would make for a successful society. And what the West is now beginning to realize is that the individual achievement, without incorporating the vulnerable community, is a myth. The idea was, “Make your own life. Be individually aspiring, and then you’ll be individually achieving, and then you’ll be individually prosperous, and then you’ll be individually happy.” You end up doing that in a glass jar, and the glass jar has a limited height, and it’s encapsulating, and in the end, you die of lack of oxygen. Human beings are alive because they seek attachment, and because they’re propelled by affection. So the isolated achieving individual, in the end, implodes.

Camila Batmanghelidjh, Founder of Kids Company in “Four Horsemen – Feature Documentary – Official Version.”  1:11:06 – 1:12:21

4. Purpose in Life has to be Outside Yourself

In order to find a purpose in life, it has to be outside yourself. It matters not how you construct it outside yourself, as long as it is a positive value added to society pursued. But it has to be outside yourself. It can’t be yourself. If you’re pursuing yourself, you’re pursuing the abyss, as Nietzsche said, you’re going to wind up in the abyss.

“Four Horsemen – Feature Documentary – Official Version.”  1:12:21 – 1:12:45

Watch ‘Four Horsemen – Feature Documentary’ Here »

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Connecting With Others: A Prescription For Overcoming Social, Cultural, And Economic Differences

Friends Greeting

We suspect — or at least we hope — that there are more and more things… where people have the opportunity to discover their commonality. These are things that can change the world, even if it’s by one person at a time.”

– Gregory Stebbins, President of Insight University

The Power Of Connection

In Stebbins’ article for the Huffington Post, “Connection: The Heart of Our Humanity,” he writes about the power of connection, how it has the ability to bridge social, cultural, and economic gaps:

I made friends and shared extremely touching experiences with them, [even though some] I barely talked to. I know not their personalities and everyday lives, but I know their core being. I also learned my core being; I saw myself in a way I have never seen before; full of love, laughter and beautiful qualities that I can appreciate in myself. Now I see myself as a person, someone to be loved and cared for, who deserves the respect I give everyone else. … Life … is an ebb and flow. [This program] taught me how to grow from the ebbs, remember the flows and to always continue to love myself, others and life.”

– A young woman, “who had just completed a 4-day program for teens from diverse social, cultural, and economic backgrounds.”

How Can You Know If You Are Placing Value In Connecting With Others?

To test out whether there is value for you in connecting with others… here’s a simple suggestion. Try it and see if you notice a difference.

Once a day, when you’re getting ready to text or email someone, call them and talk instead. Better yet, if it’s someone at work or someone close to where you are, go over and deliver your message in person. See if there’s a natural opening to make physical contact with them — a handshake or just a touch on the arm. See what it’s like to actually make a human connection.”

What Do You Think?

What are some ways to test your connection with others?

Image: “Friends Greeting” by Tobyotter on Flickr.

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One Big Reason To Place New Emphasis On Your Connection With Others: Happiness Is Contagious

what happiness looks like

… when a person becomes happy, next door neighbors have a 34% increased chance of becoming happy. A friend living within one mile? A 25% increased chance. Siblings? 14%. And a spouse? An 8% chance.”

– ABC, Good Morning America (citing research by Professor’s James Fowler and Nicholas Christakis, which they write about in their book, Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives) 

We studied a full social network and found that happiness spreads through it like a contagion. And so we really do think that happiness is contagious.”

– James Fowler

Image: “what happiness looks like” by AJC1 on Flickr.