Home
Forums
New posts
Contact Us
What's new
New posts
New media
New media comments
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Search All
Members
Current visitors
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Contact Us
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Forums
Really good
Life
How to Make Friends, According to Science
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="cheryl" data-source="post: 253" data-attributes="member: 1"><p><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/09/how-to-make-friends/565742/" target="_blank"><strong>How to Make Friends, According to Science - The Atlantic</strong></a></p><p></p><p><em>To begin, don’t dismiss the humble acquaintance. </em></p><p></p><p>What are friends for?” This isn’t a rhetorical question. Friendship is one of life’s most important features, and one too often taken for granted.</p><p></p><p>The human desire for companionship may feel boundless, but research suggests that our social capital is finite—we can handle only so many relationships at one time. Social scientists have used a number of ingenious approaches to gauge the size of people’s social networks; these have returned estimates ranging from about 250 to about 5,500 people.<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/09/how-to-make-friends/565742/#11" target="_blank"> <strong>[1]</strong> </a>(An undergraduate thesis from MIT focusing exclusively on Franklin D. Roosevelt, a friendly guy with an especially social job, suggested that he might have had as many as 22,500 acquaintances. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/09/how-to-make-friends/565742/#22" target="_blank"><strong>[2]</strong></a>) Looking more specifically at friendship, a study using the exchange of Christmas cards as a proxy for closeness put the average person’s friend group at about 121 people. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/09/how-to-make-friends/565742/#33" target="_blank"><strong>[3]</strong></a></p><p></p><p>The Studies:</p><p><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/09/how-to-make-friends/565742/#1" target="_blank">[1]</a> Freeman and Thompson, “Estimating Acquaintanceship Volume,” in The Small World (Ablex, 1989)</p><p><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/09/how-to-make-friends/565742/#2" target="_blank">[2]</a> Rosenthal, “Acquaintances and Contacts of Franklin Roosevelt” (MIT, 1960)</p><p><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/09/how-to-make-friends/565742/#3" target="_blank">[3]</a> Hill and Dunbar, “Social Network Size in Humans” (Human Nature, March 2003)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="cheryl, post: 253, member: 1"] [URL='https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/09/how-to-make-friends/565742/'][B]How to Make Friends, According to Science - The Atlantic[/B][/URL] [I]To begin, don’t dismiss the humble acquaintance. [/I] What are friends for?” This isn’t a rhetorical question. Friendship is one of life’s most important features, and one too often taken for granted. The human desire for companionship may feel boundless, but research suggests that our social capital is finite—we can handle only so many relationships at one time. Social scientists have used a number of ingenious approaches to gauge the size of people’s social networks; these have returned estimates ranging from about 250 to about 5,500 people.[URL='https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/09/how-to-make-friends/565742/#11'] [B][1][/B] [/URL](An undergraduate thesis from MIT focusing exclusively on Franklin D. Roosevelt, a friendly guy with an especially social job, suggested that he might have had as many as 22,500 acquaintances. [URL='https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/09/how-to-make-friends/565742/#22'][B][2][/B][/URL]) Looking more specifically at friendship, a study using the exchange of Christmas cards as a proxy for closeness put the average person’s friend group at about 121 people. [URL='https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/09/how-to-make-friends/565742/#33'][B][3][/B][/URL] The Studies: [URL='https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/09/how-to-make-friends/565742/#1'][1][/URL] Freeman and Thompson, “Estimating Acquaintanceship Volume,” in The Small World (Ablex, 1989) [URL='https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/09/how-to-make-friends/565742/#2'][2][/URL] Rosenthal, “Acquaintances and Contacts of Franklin Roosevelt” (MIT, 1960) [URL='https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/09/how-to-make-friends/565742/#3'][3][/URL] Hill and Dunbar, “Social Network Size in Humans” (Human Nature, March 2003) [/QUOTE]
Verification
Post reply
Forums
Really good
Life
How to Make Friends, According to Science
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
Accept
Learn more…
Top