According to research published by the American Psychological Association, people consistently underestimate how many other people in social circles they might appreciate telephone calls, text or unexpected e -mail just to greet, and The more surprising the connection, the greater the appreciation.
“People are basically social creatures and enjoy connected with others,” said the lead writer Peggy Liu, PhD, from the University of Pittsburgh. “There are many studies that show that maintaining social connections is good for our mental and physical health. However, regardless of the importance and pleasure of social relations, our research shows that people significantly underestimate how many other people will respect. “The researchers conducted a series of experiments involving more than 5,900 participants who explored how accurately people were in estimating how many other people could appreciate efforts to connect and what factors might be played to the award level.
In one experiment, half the participants were asked to remember the last time they reached someone in their social circle “just because” or “only to catch up” via email, text or telephone, after a long period of not interacting with them. The rest of the participants were asked to remember the same situation where someone reached them.
Participants were then asked to show on a scale of 7 points (1 = not at all, 7 = most) how many they or people they reach (depending on their conditions) valued, feeling grateful, grateful or happy with contact. People who remember to reach the thinking of the movements they remember are significantly less valued than those who remember receiving communication.
In another experiment, participants sent short notes, or notes and small gifts, to someone in their social circle with whom they did not interact in a few moments. Similar to the previous experiment, participants who initiated contacts were asked to assess the 7 -point scale to what extent they thought the recipient would respect, feel grateful, and feel happy with the contact. After the records/prizes were sent, the researchers also asked the recipients to assess their awards.In all experiments, those who initiate communication significantly underestimate the extent of the recipient will appreciate the act of reaching. The researchers also found an interesting variable that affects how much a person appreciates the reach.
“We found that people who receive communication placed a bigger focus than those who started communication on the elements of surprises, and the increase in this surprise was associated with higher appreciation,” Liu said. “We also found that people underestimate the appreciation of others to a larger level when communication is more surprising, as opposed to parts of regular communication patterns, or social ties between the two participants weak.”
Many people lose contact with others in their lives, whether they are friends from high school or college or colleagues they usually see in water cooler before working far, according to Liu. Starting social contact after a prolonged termination period can be frightening because people are worried about how such movements can be accepted. These findings show that their doubts may not be necessary, because other people tend to appreciate more than what people think.
“I sometimes stop before reaching people from my pre-pandemic social circles for various reasons. When that happened, I thought about the findings of this research and reminded myself that other people might also want to reach me and doubt the same reason, “