Social Interactions & Solitude

Week 4 content

Social interactions and wellbeing

·         In most countries, people who often spend time with friends are happier than people who rarely spend time with friends

·         Folk & Dunn, 2025: “we examined the relationship between socializing and happiness across more than 80 daily activities by analysing 105,766 activity episodes from 41,094 participants”

o   Participants consistently rated every common daily activity as more enjoyable when interacting with someone else (compared to doing them alone – day reconstruction method)

Methods for studying social interactions

·         Retrospective self-report

o   E.g., Who did you talk to today?

·         Momentary self-reports (experience sampling; ESM, EMA) – try address memory issue

o   E.g., Who are you talking to right now?

o   E.g., Who did you talk to in the last hour?

·         Continuous tracking (e.g., audio recordings)

o   E.g., EAR (electronically activated recorder) smartphone app

o   Intermittent recording (e.g., 30-50 sec of audio, 3-10x per hour)

Disadvantages of these methods

·         Retrospective self-report

o   Recall biases (might be better at remembering longer convos or convos w close others)

·         Momentary self-reports (experience sampling)

o   Recall biases, though lesser issue (usually ask about most recent hour or so)

o   Only captures subset of interactions (the ones that occur at the moment of the report)

o   Intensive for the participants

·         Continuous tracking (e.g., audio recordings)

o   Some aspects are subjective (e.g., quality), can’t be judged by observers

o   Technology (doesn’t always work; not accessible to everyone; don’t always have reception or carry phone)

o   Privacy issues (private moments; participants can consent, but not the people they talk to)

o   Intensive for researchers (manually code each audio clip)

Day reconstruction method (Kahneman, Krueger, Schkade, Schwarz & Stone, 2004)

·         Construct a diary, sequence of episodes

·         Describe each episode

o   When it happened, how long it was

o   What they were doing

o   Who with

o   How they felt etc.

(pictures in lecture notes of these materials)

Results —> social interactions are the second most pleasant activity

Quantity of interactions (Sun, Harris & Vazire, 2020)

Prompted at random times in a day - asking about interaction, happiness, social connectedness

Findings:

·         Self-reports -> "every single participant tended to feel happier and more socially connected when they interacted in the past hour, compared to when they did not."

·         Observer reports -> same patter, but smaller effects.

·         The association did not differ for extraverts vs introverts.

Quantity of interactions (Ren, Stavrova & Loh, 2021)

·         Looked at social contact frequency and happiness/life-satisfaction/affect

·         Takeaway = there are diminishing returns.

o   If you don't have many interactions, additional ones add to your well-being.

o   At some point, additional interactions don't make much difference.

Overestimate how many social interactions other have (Whillians, Christie, Cheung, Jordan & Chen, 2017)

·         First year students estimate time they spend on certain activities vs their peers

o   Overestimate how often classmates socialize with new university friends

o   Underestimate how often classmate spend time alone

§  May only see when they are out, social media etc.

Quality of interactions (Sun, Harris & Vazire, 2020)

Same method as previously

·         Participants reported feeling happier and more socially connected when

o   They had deeper conversations

§  Self-reported, or as rated by EAR data observers

o   They disclosed more

§  Self-reported, or as rated by EAR data observers

o   They knew or liked their partner more

§  Self-reported

§  Can’t tell from audio how much people know/like each other

·         Some, but "not much evidence that the quality of social interactions was differentially associated with overall well-being for introverts compared to extraverts"

Social connection and mortality (Berkman & Syme, 1979)

·         At all ages, people were less likely to die if they had more types of connection

o   Suggests diversity matters, relationship variability mattered in the outcome of this study

Social portfolio study (Collins, Hagerty, Quoidbach, Norton & Wood Brooks, 2022)

Diversity and wellbeing (Hagerty, Quoidbach, Norton & Wood Brooks, 2022)

·         Preregistered data set - N = 578 Americans

·         ATUS dataset - N = 19,197 Americans

·         Sage dataset - N = 10,447 from 6 countries

·         French experience-sampling dataset - N = 21,644 French users of mobile app

o   People who interacted with a greater diversity of people reported higher well-being

Correlation

Key Points 1

·         Humans (generally) enjoy social interactions

·         Various methods to assess this, each with pluses and minuses

o   Retrospective self-report (e.g., Day Reconstruction Method)

o   Momentary self-reports (experience sampling)

o   Continuous tracking (e.g., audio recordings; EAR

·         Quantity, quality and diversity are all good for well-being

o   Diminishing returns on quantity

o   People think other people have more social interactions than they do themselves

Personality - big 5 (Zelenski, Sobocko & Whelan, 2014)

1.      Openness

2.      Conscientiousness

3.      Extraversion

4.      Agreeableness

5.      Neuroticism

Personality

·         Unsociable: content with low levels of social contact

o   Preference for less interaction

o   Associated with extraversion/introversion

·         Shyness: not about social contact, but about experience of anxiety related to social interaction

o   Fear of interaction

o   Associated with neuroticism/emotional stability

·         Some introverts are prone to negative emotions, and some are not (~50/50)

Introversion

·         Are we just a bunch of traits?

o   No, we're not. Remember, you're like some other people and like no other person.

·         So, what is it that makes us different?

o   It's the doings that we have in our life -- the personal projects.”

o   He talks about “free traits” – how we can act in ways that aren’t in alignment with our traits, to achieve a goal

o   “[Free traits are] where we enact a script in order to advance a core project in our lives. And they are what matters.

o   Don't ask people what type you are; ask them, ‘What are your core projects in your life?’ ”

Introversion as personality

·         Spend more time alone, but

·         Enjoy social interactions about as much as extraverts

·         Have friends and engage in social activities

·         Have social skills equal to extraverts

o   Context may obscure those skills

Social anxiety

·         Social anxiety disorder (SAD) involves persistent and distressing anxiety in numerous social situations such as

o   Giving presentation

o   Performing in front of others

o   Interacting with strangers

o   Going on a date

o   Small talk

o   Eating or drinking in front of others

·         To be diagnosed with SAD according to psychiatric criteria, you must endorse each of the following symptoms

o   Marked persistent fear of social situations

o   Feared social situations almost always elicit anxiety

o   Fear is out of proportion to actual threat

o   Situations are avoided or endured with intense anxiety

o   The anxiety or avoidance causes impairment in important life areas

o   Symptoms have been present for at least six months

Social anxiety and interactions (Goodman, Rum, Silva & Kashdan, 2021)

·         Quality social interactions usually improve mood

o   Do they for people with SAD?

·         Experience sampling, 2 weeks, 5x/day, SAD vs. control

o   Between-person analysis: SAD vs. controls

§  Participants with SAD reported lower positive affect and higher negative affect, in social and non-social situations

o   Within-person analysis: with others vs. alone

§  Higher Positive Affect when with others vs. alone

§  People with SAD showed smaller difference in PA between social and non-social situations (diminished reward responding?)

Extraverts are happier

·         Why?

o   They spend more time in social situations

o   Reward reactivity -> more likely to notice and respond to reward cues

o   Higher set point -> report more Positive Affect even when alone

o   Better at maintaining a good mood

Acting extraverted: Zelenski, Santoro, Whelan (2012)

·         N = 127 undergraduates

·         3 sets of instructions on how to act during conversation

o   “emphasize parts of your personality that are [introverted/extraverted adjectives] both in answers to the interview questions and in the way you present yourself during the interview, but do not lie.”

§  Act extraverted: act bold, talkative, energetic, active, assertive, and adventurous

§  Act introverted: act reserved, quiet, lethargic, passive, compliant, and unadventurous

o   Control: “act as naturally as possible.”

·         Interacted with an interviewer for 20min in a “get to know you” situation

·         Reported their mood

o   P's who acted extraverted reported higher Positive Affect than p's who acted introverted

o   Regardless of whether they were dispositionally extraverted or introverted

Is it possible to become more extraverted? (Hudson, Briley, Chopik & Derringer, 2019)

·         N = 377 participants were asked which personality dimensions they would like to work on changing

o   N = 200 (53%) chose extraversion

·         Website/game presented challenges designed to help improve on that personality dimension

o   Brainstorm a list of questions to ask other people

o   Go to a public place where people mingle and say “hello” to someone new

o   Introduce yourself to someone new

o   Introduce yourself to someone new and ask them at least two questions about themselves

·         Participants chose >1 challenge/week

o   At the end of each week, reported how many times they had completed each challenge they had accepted

·         Results: successfully completed more (vs fewer) challenges predicted more positive growth in extraversion – help change personality

Key Points 2

·         Sociability is associated with extraversion

·         Shyness/social anxiety is associated with neuroticism

o   Still benefit from having more social interaction

·         Extraverts are happier

o   But extraverts AND introverts are happier when they act extraverted

·         People can become more extraverted

What is solitude? (Weinstein, Hansen & Nguyen, 2022)

·         Interviewed 60 adults, aged 19-80

·         "What comes to mind when you hear the word 'solitude'?"

Is solitude positive or negative? (Lay, Pauly, Graf, Biesanz & Hoppman, 2018)

·         100 adults and 50 UG students

·         Experience sampling: 3x/day for 10 days

·         Alone or with others

·         Mood (affect)

Emotion circumplex, clustering

How solitude feels depends on how you think about it

·         Rodriguez, Pratt, Bellet, & McNally (2023)

o   Told people about the benefits of solitude (or not)

o   Made them sit in silence for 10min

o   Experimental group significantly more relaxed and content

How do we perceive people who seek solitude? (Ren & Evans, 2020)

·         Are people who prefer solitude excluded by others (i.e., ostracized)?

o   We exclude people who break social norms

o   We may deem people who prefer solitude as irrelevant, invisible

·         Ostracized

o   In general, others

§  Leave me out of their group

§  Keep me out of the loop on information that is important to my close relationships

§  Treat me as if I am invisible

§  Give me the cold shoulder treatment

§  Physically turn their backs to me when in my presence

§  Treat me as if I’m in solitary confinement

§  Do not look at me when I’m in their presence

§  Ignore me during conversation

·         People are more willing to ostracize target individuals who have a high (vs low) preference for solitude

If so (seeking solitude), then why?

·         Might expect not to enjoy interacting with someone who prefers solitude (self-interested)

·         Might expect a person who prefers solitude to not enjoy interacting with them (other regarding)

·         When they thought the other person was high in preference for solitude: they thought they would enjoy interacting less; they thought the other person would enjoy interacting less

Key Points 3

·         Solitude varies in terms of physical separation and inner focus

·         Solitude can be positive or negative

o   Clusters - calm vs. bored

·         Solitude gives us

o   Positive things: competence, autonomy, self-growth, interpersonal connection, self-care

o   Negative things: disrupted well-being, alienation

·         We think people who seek solitude

o   Won't be fun to spend time with; won't want to spend time with us

o   And so, we ostracize them

Final points

·         Extraverts and introverts enjoy and benefit from social interactions

·         Solitude can be positive or negative

·         We all need to find a balance between social interaction and solitude that works for us