Going out with friends twice a week is essential for quality of life (science guarantees)

They say that winning a friend is difficult, but losing one is very easy. So if you are lucky enough to have good companions in life, do what you can to keep them. After all, a friend is, at the same time, a counselor, a psychologist, an animator, a teacher or, in the “worst” case, simply good company.

Well, if those arguments that we just mentioned weren’t enough, now, Psychology has brought another pretext for us to go out more those we love so much.

O awesome.club wants to show the results of a study carried out by a well-known researcher in the scientific community. This work has shown that going out with friends more often can be beneficial for your health.

Professor Robin Dunbar is a renowned English evolutionary psychologist. For years, he has been working on topics related to neuroscience and human behavior. And one of his works demonstrated the health benefits of frequent outings with friends. Know that finding friends…

…increases happiness levels; …decreases stress levels; …improves the immune system and accelerates recovery from illness; …increases generosity and empathy and …provides mental and emotional stability.

The explanation for this lies in the amount of endorphins produced when we are close to friends. These endorphins are the chemicals that stimulate the areas of the brain where happiness and all pleasurable emotions are generated. Therefore, they are essential for well-being. Physical contact and social activities, such as laughter, release endorphins in our bodies.

Furthermore, one of Professor Dunbar’s studies showed that there is a close relationship between friendship and generosity. According to his research, people with weak friendship networks tend to be less generous with their friends than those with stronger networks.

Although, nowadays, technology has helped a lot in communication, “living together” through social networks or other technologies will never replace face-to-face contact. In his research, Dunbar suggests that, in general, people do not find virtual communication as satisfying as in person. This conclusion came after he evaluated the interaction of several of his survey participants with five of their closest friends.

Dunbar analyzed the level of happiness on a scale ranging from 0 to 8, after an interaction between friends through different means. The highest level of satisfaction was recorded in personal contact. Then came interactions through phone calls. Then, instant and text messages and, only at the end, emails or messages via social networks. And, of course, the greater the pleasure and satisfaction that comes from interacting with friends, the greater the health benefits.

According to Dunbar’s research, men and women “manage” their friendships differently. While they generally tend to have few female friends but very solid friendships (often just one best friend and one best friend), guys generally have wider circles (up to four friends) but with less intimate relationships. These particular gender characteristics are also reflected in the way men and women maintain friendships.

Women may be satisfied with deep conversation while men often need to do activities together—playing football, video games, or going to a concert, for example. Dunbar indicates in her studies that among the activities that help women the most are getting together and talking about anything that makes them laugh and, preferably, talking about their rivals. Men, on the other hand, make jokes or play sports and participate in competitive activities.

Professor Dunbar recommends that each meeting bring together at least five friends, regardless of gender. But it is important that these friends are really close and do us good. After all, human beings spend a fifth of their lives interacting, and half of that time is spent on the five closest friends, the ones that bring the most health benefits.

And it’s not a random number. In another research, whose object of study was laughter, it was shown that, in general, we human beings are not prone to laugh when we are in groups of five or six people. This result suggests that natural laughter “adapts” to the size of the groups we are a part of.

Research also suggests that in order to maintain a friendship and enjoy its positive effects, it is necessary to see our friends at least twice a week and be in contact with them at least once every two weeks.

By now, you’re probably wondering more about the researcher who gave us a scientific excuse to meet our friends. Robin Dunbar, as we have already mentioned, is a psychologist and researcher. He devoted much of his life (almost 40 years, to be exact) to understanding human relationships through Evolutionary Psychology. Today, Dunbar leads a research group in social and evolutionary neuroscience at the University of Oxford in England.

How often do you meet up with your friends? What activities do you like to do the most?