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Eating, walking, cleaning, and even reading—everything is more enjoyable when done together. This is shown by a study involving data from more than 40,000 Americans: no matter what they are doing, people are happier when they have company during everyday activities.
Silent book clubs are places where reading enthusiasts meet to read together in silence. Discussing the books is not mandatory, and the participants are sometimes complete strangers to each other. The idea originated in the US, but these unusual reading clubs can now be found all over the world.
At first glance, it seems counterintuitive that an activity as solitary as reading would be cultivated in this way, but apparently people are less lonely or simply happier when they are together in every situation. This is confirmed by a study recently published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, which used data from the American Time Use Survey (2010, 2012, 2013, and 2021), with a total of 41,094 participants surveyed.
Social beings
Humans are social creatures and are usually happier and more content in company, while loneliness can even make us ill – this is well documented in research. However, previous studies suggest that this does not apply equally to all experiences, but mainly to pleasant things and experiences that people enjoy sharing. Tedious chores such as cleaning or other everyday tasks can be even more annoying in company, according to previous assumptions.
As Dunigan Folk and Elizabeth Dunn from the University of British Columbia in Canada write, there is also evidence that some activities – such as reading – are more enjoyable and calming when done alone. Overall, however, it has not been thoroughly researched whether the company of others only makes us happier in certain situations, while other activities are better enjoyed alone.
Mood always improves
In the regular surveys conducted as part of the American Time Use Survey, participants are asked to describe the previous day in detail, including all activities. They also have to rate how happy they were on a scale of 0 to 6 for three randomly selected activities. Thirdly, they were asked to indicate whether they were alone or in company – physically or on the phone. Activities that are social in nature, such as caring for relatives, were excluded from the analysis.
This left more than 80 typical everyday activities, such as household chores and various leisure activities. The result: no matter what you do—filling up your car, shopping, going to the bank—if you are in company, your mood almost always improves. In the four years studied, there was only one activity in 2021 where company slightly worsened the mood: cleaning the kitchen. Even if the statistical effect per activity is not very large, the researchers say the impact should not be underestimated, given the many opportunities for everyday socializing.
Eating and drinking together
According to the Canadian research team’s analysis, eating and drinking together makes people particularly happy, followed by traveling, running, or walking. But even for activities that are typically done alone, such as reading, the correlation remained significant, according to the study.
Even reading makes you happier in company
As the two researchers point out, other factors could also reinforce the positive effect, such as enjoying a particularly wonderful dinner in a restaurant in company, while at home alone you just eat something simple quickly. At the same time, the physical presence of another person is not essential for the positive effect; it can also be enough to talk on the phone while doing household chores.
To rule out the reverse effect—namely, that happy people are more likely to seek the company of others than unhappy people—the mood before the activities was also taken into account. In fact, this had little effect on the positive correlations.
Still prefer to be alone?
“If everything is better together, why do people still do so much alone?” Folk and Dunn ask at the end of their study. One obvious explanation is that people are not always nearby or available. In addition, there are other motives besides the pursuit of happiness. Among other things, some tasks are simply faster or more effective when done alone, such as studying for an exam.
The results over the four years of the study are very consistent, but the study also has a few weaknesses, the researchers conclude. Among other things, the quality of social contacts could not be taken into account, and personality traits, such as whether someone is introverted or extroverted, were not reflected in the data. In addition, cultural background could play an important role in the assessment of social contacts.
- source: orf.at/picture: pixabay.com
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