It’s Research Wednesday! Where I share the latest, or most fascinating, in the science of friendship.
“During what the study authors called ‘uncomfortable’ weather — be it hot, humid, wet or cold — people tend to have longer phone conversations, but with a smaller circle of people than usual, including close friends and family.” (“Bad Weather Leads to Longer Chats with Family, Close Friends,” LiveScience.com, 10/10/12)
When you’re stuck indoors, what do you do? Call your besties, apparently. There’s something comforting about snuggling into the couch with the phone on one ear and committing to a long chat like old times, and we never need comfort more than when the world outside our windows is keeping us indoors.
It’s not that we talk on the phone more when it’s gross out, according to researchers, just that our phone habits change. “We found that during uncomfortable weather, our ‘ringing anyone’ behavior declined, talking on the phone for longer to our close friends and family more than our wider network,” said Santi Phithakkitnukoon, co-author of this study.
The researchers put forth a couple of reasons for this: Maybe bad weather increases our feeling of isolation, so we reach out to stay connected. Or maybe bad weather simply makes it harder to interact with anyone face to face, so we go the next best route.
What do you think? Do you tend to call BFFs more when it’s gross out? (I’ve never noticed this phenomenon myself, but I’ll be paying attention now.) Why?
MWF Seeking BFF 