The declining marginal utility of social time for subjective well-being

Kushlev, Kostadin; Heintzelman, Samantha J.; Oishi, Shigehiro; Diener, Ed

doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2018.04.004

Cited by 31 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…Similarly, commuters who were instructed to interact with a stranger reported more positive experiences than those instructed to remain in solitude, whether they were more or less extraverted (Epley & Schroeder, 2014). One recent study did find that extraverts had a stronger positive association between social time and average momentary mood than did introverts—but this did not generalize to global positive affect (Kushlev et al, 2018, Study 3b). Similarly, even though extraverts experienced a larger increase in positive affect after a “cocktail party” interaction than did introverts, a large proportion of introverts who had expected to feel worse after socializing actually felt better (Duffy, Helzer, Hoyle, Helzer, & Chartrand, 2018).…”

Section: Trait Extraversion As a Potential Moderatormentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Indeed, a clear conclusion from previous research on social interactions and well-being is that people feel happier in moments when they are interacting with others, and that happier people tend to spend more time interacting with others. Across a range of methods, including not only retrospective and momentary self-reports (Kushlev, Heintzelman, Oishi, & Diener, 2018; Lucas, Le, & Dyrenforth, 2008; Rohrer, Richter, Brümmer, Wagner, & Schmukle, 2018; Srivastava, Angelo, & Vallereux, 2008; Watson, Clark, McIntyre, & Hamaker, 1992), but also mechanical clickers for counting social interactions as they occur (Sandstrom & Dunn, 2014b), and observer ratings based on unobtrusive audio recordings of everyday behavior (Mehl, Vazire, Holleran, & Clark, 2010; Milek et al, 2018), studies consistently show that the amount—or quantity —of social interactions one has is associated with greater well-being.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Is well-being associated with the quantity and quality of social interactions?

Sun¹,

Harris²,

Vazire³

2020

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

201

166

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Social relationships are often touted as critical for well-being. However, the vast majority of studies on social relationships have relied on self-report measures of both social interactions and well-being, which makes it difficult to disentangle true associations from shared method variance. To address this gap, we assessed the quantity and quality of social interactions using both self-report and observer-based measures in everyday life. Participants (N = 256, 3,206 observations) wore the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR), an unobtrusive audio recorder, and completed experience sampling method (ESM) self-reports of their momentary social interactions, happiness, and feelings of social connectedness, four times each day for one week. Observers rated the quantity and quality of participants' social interactions based on the EAR recordings from the same time points. Quantity of social interactions was robustly associated with greater well-being in the moment and on average, whether they were measured with selfreports or observer reports. Conversational (conversational depth and self-disclosure) and relational (knowing and liking one's interaction partners) aspects of social interaction quality were also generally associated with greater well-being, but the effects were larger and more consistent for self-reported (vs. observer-reported) quality variables, within-person (vs. betweenperson) associations, and for predicting social connectedness (vs. happiness). Finally, although most associations were similar for introverts and extraverts, our exploratory results suggest that introverts may experience greater boosts in social connectedness, relative to extraverts, when engaging in deeper conversations. This study provides compelling multi-method evidence supporting the link between more frequent and deeper social interactions and well-being.

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Section: Trait Extraversion As a Potential Moderatormentioning

confidence: 93%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Is well-being associated with the quantity and quality of social interactions?

Sun¹,

Harris²,

Vazire³

2020

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

201

166

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The research is clear that increased social engagement is associated with greater well-being and that socially isolated individuals are at greater risk of poor mental health (Leigh-Hunt et al, 2017). For example, retrospective (Srivastava et al, 2008) and momentary (Lucas et al, 2008;Sandstrom & Dunn, 2014) self-report data from undergraduate samples show that engagement in social interaction is associated with greater positive affect and subjective well-being, a finding that has since been replicated in an international sample of 243,075 participants from 166 countries (Kushlev et al, 2018). Less is known, however, about the effect of social interaction quality.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The effect of social interaction quantity and quality on depressed mood and loneliness: A daily diary study

Kuczynski

Halvorson

Slater

et al. 2021

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships

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Background Concerns about the possible effects of social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted several gaps in our knowledge about the association between social interactions and mental health. The current study aimed to characterize the unique effect of social interaction quantity and quality on daily depressed mood and loneliness and to identify the degree to which these processes operate at the within-person and between-person levels of analysis. Methods A community sample of 515 adults was recruited to participate in 75 days of daily surveys. Participants reported on daily feelings of loneliness, depressed mood, social interaction frequency, engagement in vulnerable self-disclosure, and perceived responsiveness. Linear mixed models were used to identify the effect of daily social interaction quantity and quality on loneliness and depressed mood and to characterize the degree to which these effects varied across individuals. Results Social interaction quantity and perceived responsiveness were negatively associated with depressed mood and loneliness at the within-person level of analysis. Perceived responsiveness was also negatively associated with depressed mood and loneliness at both the within-person and between-person levels of analysis. Random slopes analysis revealed substantial heterogeneity in the within-person effects. Limitations The non-experimental design of this study precludes drawing causal conclusions. Furthermore, demographic and/or geographic differences in the observed effects may limit generalization. Conclusions Engaging in more frequent, high-quality interactions may protect against daily depressed mood and loneliness despite one’s average level of these variables. Future research is needed to establish causality and identify the degree to which these findings generalize across samples and time.

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“…Well‐being, a multifaceted construct, encompasses individuals’ feelings of satisfaction with life, whether they experience the things they do as worthwhile and positive emotions like happiness and a lack of anxiety (ONS, 2015). The evidence that social relationships are associated with well‐being is so strong that it is now considered a ‘fact’ (Kushlev, Heintzelman, Oishi, & Diener, 2018). The bulk of the existing evidence derives from research examining social relationships with ‘strong ties’ (Granovetter, 1973): family, romantic partners, and, to some extent, friends (Diener & Seligman, 2002; Dolan, Peasgood, & White, 2008; Li & Kanazawa, 2016; Pinquart & Sörensen, 2000; Ueno, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%