Facebook happiness: how social networks reflect reality

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We humans are often overconfident. We tend to rate ourselves “above average” in various categories, starting with attractiveness and ability to altruism and ending with driving skills. But there is a sphere in which positive self-esteem brings us, and it relates to our emotional perception.

It always seems to us that other people are happier and more socially integrated than we are, and such beliefs - regardless of whether they have real soil - have a significant impact on our happiness.

This statement was recently verified by researchers from the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the Harvard School of Medicine and Business. In a scientific paper published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, The team tested about UNS 400 freshmen - a group of people who are the most impressionable and prone to experiencing new friends and social adaptation.

Students were asked about their social life: how many friends and acquaintances they have, how much time they spend alone and in company. The respondents were then asked to suggest how their peers would answer these questions. The study participants also passed a series of tests assessing their mental health and well-being.

Most students (55%) suggested that their peers had more friends than they did, while 26% were convinced that they had more friends than most of their fellow students. On average, respondents noted about 31% of time spent alone, considering that the rest alone spend only 22% of their time alone.

It is not surprising that respondents who reported a large number of friends and acquaintances had everything in order with general well-being. But the perception of their own social life relative to others also had a significant impact. The simple belief that they have fewer friends than others — no matter if it was true or not — was enough to make people feel worse.

“Even in conditions of excellent social integration, if a person thinks that surrounding friends have more than him, this negatively affects his well-being and involvement,” explains Associate Professor at the Harvard Business School Ashley Willens, who led the research as a UBC doctoral student.

According to Willens, the reason for this phenomenon is how we observe other people. We live the full range of our lives and we know how much time is spent on such single tasks as studying, working or watching a series on Netflix alone with a takeaway food container. We observe the acts of social communication of other people and unconsciously assume that this is how they spend most of their time, not taking into account the fact that they, too, spend hours lonely.

Missed opportunity syndrome is not such a serious problem: we are more motivated to fill small gaps than large ones.

When the researchers again conducted their tests on the same students six months later, it turned out that those who considered themselves less socially integrated had in fact more friends. However, the belief that peers are more popular brings more harm than good. Moreover, it is most likely unreasonable.

Article translation completed New Community.

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