This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "The Happiness Advantage" by Shawn Achor. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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What are some amazing benefits of socializing? How can being a people person help your productivity and mood?
The amazing benefits of socializing are undisputed. From increased creativity to improved health and mood, making time to socialize is one of the best investments you can make.
Keep reading to find out the benefits of socializing.
Here Are the Benefits of Socializing
When you have a daunting, stressful project on your plate, you may be inclined to hunker down and isolate yourself from seemingly superfluous social interactions—eating lunch at your desk, working nights and weekends, and canceling social time with friends and family. However, this approach actually hurts your productivity, instead of helping it, because people need social connection for their productivity and personal well-being. In other words, when you avoid social interaction in order to focus on your project, you’re unwittingly creating a bigger obstacle between you and the finish line—and, by the time you get there, you’ll have no energy left for the next project.
By contrast, successful people know that they need social support to get through challenging times. When you’re dealing with a big project at work or a challenging situation at home, the most important thing you can do is to maintain your social connections. The benefits of socializing include increased:
- Energy
- Engagement
- Happiness
- Productivity
- Resilience
- Sense of purpose
Furthermore, the benefits of socializing are twofold:
- At the moment of interaction, you experience a jolt of happiness.
- Each interaction with someone strengthens that relationship, and as the relationship improves, your happiness baseline rises.
In short, the benefits of socializing include an array of physical, mental, and emotional benefits discussed throughout this book. One study that followed 268 male Harvard students for nearly 80 years revealed that strong relationships were the biggest factor in long-term health and well-being. Furthermore, those with robust social ties also saw higher levels of career success and income than those without.
The benefits of socializing also include improved health:
- When you have a positive social interaction, your body releases the hormone oxytocin, which lowers anxiety, improves focus and concentration, and makes you feel good.
- Social connections also boost your immune, cardiovascular, and neuroendocrine systems.
- Social support can extend your lifespan—in fact, it plays as large a part in your life expectancy as high blood pressure, obesity, smoking, and regular exercise.
Social Support Improves Your Work Performance
The benefits of social support are crucial at work, where chronic stress and pressure can have insidious effects. Relatively small social sparks—like working on a close-knit team and having casual conversations in the hallway—can insulate employees from many of the harmful effects of stress:
- Since social interactions benefit the cardiovascular system, the effect works as an antidote to work stresses. This phenomenon is called work recovery. Over time, these benefits add up and minimize the ill effects of long-term stress.
- Research shows that people who have strong social connections are less inclined to interpret a situation as being stressful in the first place.
- Employees who reap the benefits of socializingon perform better, even when they have to work longer hours and maintain focus under difficult conditions.
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Here's what you'll find in our full The Happiness Advantage summary :
- How happiness isn’t the result of success, it’s the cause of it
- The benefits of happiness—from increased creativity to improved health
- Strategies for adopting a positive mindset and raising your happiness baseline
