Social Networks Increase Longevity and Decrease Grief

The idea that friends influence our habits, behaviors and moods is nothing new.  When we’re down we turn to friends in order to bring us back up.  When we’re up we turn to friends to help celebrate.  Social psychologists have been studying the influences of friends and peer groups on behavior and emotions for decades.

It is, in fact, the influential nature of our peers that has helped to build the foundation for recovery and support therapies including grief therapy.  It makes sense that as we move through the grieving process, a supportive social network, or a network of friends can be an important component in dealing with difficult emotions.

As we become better at lengthening our lives, it is important to understand the influences that our friends have on the quality of those lives.  Research pioneered by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler on the influence of the friends within our social networks provides insight into potential strategies both for increasing longevity and for grief recovery.

Friends Keep Framingham Healthy

In the book Connected, researchers Christakis and Fowler describe the influence of one’s quality and quantity of friends on multiple facets of life including behavior and mood.

Using data collected through the Framingham Heart Study in Framingham Massachusetts, Christakis and Fowler have shed new light on the importance of not just the quality and quantity of independent friendships, but the influence of the interconnectedness of entire networks.

The Framingham Heart Study was initiated in 1948 by the National Heart Institute.  It has become one of the most comprehensive health studies by following 15,000 residents and their descendants through medical evaluations given every four years.

The data show that clusters of these “contagions” pop up and move through a community like a virus.  People get fat together.

Christakis and Fowler found the information of interest because of data collected on significant relationships of the participants such as friends and family.  Christakis and Fowler used this information to construct a computerized model of individual connectivity throughout the community.

The data show the effects of friends on each other in a variety of areas such as obesity, smoking, drinking, and moods.  Christakis and Fowler label these effects as behavioral “contagions” because they flow through the interconnections of individuals and subgroups within the community.

The data show that clusters of these “contagions” pop up and move through a community like a virus.  People get fat together.

Friends or Foe?

What does this mean?  Christakis and Fowler site the analysis of data from the Framingham community as evidence that behaviors impacting health and well-being, (leading to long lives or early death), can be passed from one friend to another.

From social and behaviorist perspectives this makes sense.  Peer pressure, observational learning, and needs for affiliation can account for the fact that behaviors are passed from one person to the next when exposure is frequent. We are more likely to take that second trip to the buffet if our friend is willing to grab that second plate as well.

Similarly, a less desirable behavior such as smoking is naturally less likely to occur when our friends are wrinkling up their noses and opening a window.

Load Bearing Friends

Christakis and Fowler discovered that different types of relationships hold different amounts of influential loads.  The influence is not always as one would expect.  This difference can is seen in the influence of family versus friends.

For example, with obesity trends, spousal influence is less significant than the influence of same sex friendships. Christakis and Fowler discovered that if a man’s wife became obese, he had a 37% increased risk for obesity; if a male friend became obese, the man’s increased risk for obesity doubled.

Although it may be surprising that a same sex friend would have a higher impact on a man’s weight than his wife, the higher impact of friends than family would not come as a surprise to researcher Lynne Gilles and her contemporaries.

In a study at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, Giles found that quality friendships were a critical factor in longevity among study participants over the age of 70.  Data taken from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Aging (ASLA) showed that while contact with the family had little impact, social networking with friends decreased death incidence by 22%.

So although your friends may make you fat, they can also make you live longer!

Power Of The Sexes

Christakis and Fowler also found that there are gender differences in how people may be influenced. The influence of same gender connections on behavior is higher than the influence of opposite gender connections.  Sam Feldman, the founder of the Men’s Bereavement Network, would not be surprised by the findings.

His network is based on the idea that quality same-gender friendships and connections can serve as an important tool in grief recovery.  Mr. Feldman founded the Men’s Bereavement Network after he became a Widower and discovered that the current mainstream grief groups were populated almost exclusively by women.

Although appreciative of the groups, Mr. Feldman recognized that he simply was not relating to the participants in his grief the way he would relate to the grief of other men.  His intuitive belief is that the influence of other men on the grieving process would be higher than the influence of women.

Evidence from the Christakis and Fowler study substantiate this belief.

Quantity, Not Just Quality

While the evidence is pretty clear from Christakis and Fowler’s research that it is important to maintain quality friendships, quantity of friendships should not go overlooked. Christakis and Fowler found that those people with the highest levels of happiness in the study were those people who had the most interconnections.

Mirror Mirror on the Wall…

The researchers explain the phenomenon of more friends leading to higher happiness through the two concepts: mirror neurons and the difference in impact of happy versus unhappy encounters. Mirror neurons are a specific type of neuron that fires when you observe a response in someone else.

When a person smiles, mirror neurons are triggered and you smile. When a person yawns, mirror neurons trigger your own yawn. Christakis and Fowler believe that happy encounters serve as personal mood elevators through mirror neurons.

When you observe happiness, facial muscles relax, endorphins may be released, and positive mood increases.

Happiness Outweighs Unhappiness

But what about negative encounters?  It goes without saying that negative encounters can push mood in a negative direction.  The question arises: how can having more friends necessarily increase happiness?  If you encounter unhappy friends, won’t that make you unhappy?

Christakis and Fowler explain that happy encounters give you a more positive push than unhappy encounters give you a negative push.  The researchers state that there is a statistical influence of 9% for positive encounters and 7% for negative encounters.

Positive encounters outweigh negative encounters increasing happiness overall. Many researchers including Ronald Grossarth-Maticek, Thomas Blakeslee, and Hans Jurgen Eyesnck, have studied the links between positive attitudes and emotional happiness with better health.

When you increase the quantity of happy friends and interactions you have, you may lead a healthier and longer life.

Supportive Friends Speed Recovery

Supportive therapies have long considered the impact of friends on recovery. The Research by Christakis and Fowler offers further evidence of the connection between friends and recovery.

If the number of friendships and network connections has such a clear impact on the mood of an individual, it can be assumed that when a person in grief faces recovery, exposure to a large network with happy exchanges would be a goal. Examining the dynamics of a group and awareness of the number of participants in varying stages of emotional recovery may be a critical component in the direction of the grieving process.

By exposing sad participants to other sad participants, the network as a whole may pivot in a negative direction.  Exposing sad participants to increasingly happy participants may be a necessary component to keep the entire network working in a positive direction.

The research on both quality and quantity friendships conducted by Christakis and Fowler has widespread implications for individuals, communities, and entire social networks.  Quality friends can help keep you slim, healthy, and living longer.  A high quantity of friends can keep you happy.

What better way to lead a long happy life than with great friends, and a lot of them!

Image Source: Mcgraths

Tagged friends, social influence