Social Interaction I

Need to Belong (Baumeister & Leary, 1995)

Fundamental human need to form and maintain a minimum quantity of lasting, positive, and significant interpersonal relationships.

Evolutionary Perspective on Social Needs

Early humans in small groups were more likely to survive, mature, and reproduce if they were social and caring.

Relationships and Health

Evidence suggests a fundamental need to belong leads to better health and wellbeing.

Need to Belong Parallels

Similar to our need for food, relationships are easy to form, difficult to break, cause suffering if absent, and are universal.

Impact of Rejection

Rejection leads to pain, reduced wellbeing, and impaired intellectual functioning.

Social Network and Health

A lack of a social network is a strong predictor of illness and mortality.

Relationships and Mortality

High social support and integration are associated with lower mortality rates, comparable to quitting smoking or regular exercise.

Satisfying Relationships

The need to feel socially connected is vital for life, especially when relationships are highly satisfying.

Satiation of Social Needs

People have a limited number of close friends, often spending less time with friends when in a romantic relationship.

Universality of Belonging

The need for close relationships is universal across cultures, suggesting it's a basic human need.

Quality of Relationships

Relationship quality promotes both surviving and thriving.

Pleasant Social Interactions

Pleasant daily social interactions are associated with greater life satisfaction.

Characteristics of Happiest People

The happiest people are highly social and have the strongest, most satisfying, and fulfilling relationships.

"Weak" Ties

Interactions with weak ties (e.g., baristas, bus drivers) can contribute to a sense of belonging and wellbeing.

Benefits of Interacting with Weak Ties

Engaging with and being kind to others benefits wellbeing by helping us recognize the value of others and feel connected.

Underestimation of Positive Impact

People tend to underestimate how happy their interactions make others feel and how much others like them after a conversation.

Relational Diversity

The richness and evenness of relationship types across one’s social interactions is associated with improved health and wellbeing.

Relational Diversity Components

Captures how many different relationship types a person has and how evenly interactions are distributed among those types.

Attraction

Evaluating another person positively, often driven by the rewarding nature of their presence.

Forces of Attraction

Reciprocity, similarity, and familiarity (proximity) are key factors that attract people to each other.

Reciprocity in Attraction

We like people who like us, especially when that liking is specific to us.

Similarity in Attraction

We like people who are like us, especially in terms of background, interests, attitudes, and values.

Why Similarity Matters

We trust similar others more, feel assured they will like us, and enjoy spending time with them.

Personality Similarity

Actual personality traits matter more than similarity in personality when it comes to attraction.

Perceived Similarity

Perceived similarity makes people like each other more than actual similarity, increasing as relationships progress.

Familiarity (Proximity)

People are more likely to become friends or romantic partners with those they see and interact with most frequently.

MIT Housing Study

Demonstrated that physical proximity significantly impacts friendship formation.

Mere Exposure Effect

We tend to like things more after we have been repeatedly exposed to them and they become more familiar to us.

Reading - Relational Diversity Predicts Well-Being

Key Idea: People who engage with a diverse range of relationship types (e.g., family, friends, coworkers) in daily social interactions report higher well-being.
Source: Collins et al.,