{"id":7444,"date":"2022-08-05T09:22:25","date_gmt":"2022-08-05T13:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=7444"},"modified":"2022-08-05T09:22:25","modified_gmt":"2022-08-05T13:22:25","slug":"new-study-finds-that-people-misjudge-how-much-old-friends-appreciate-keeping-in-contact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2022\/08\/new-study-finds-that-people-misjudge-how-much-old-friends-appreciate-keeping-in-contact.html","title":{"rendered":"New Study Finds That People Misjudge How Much Old Friends Appreciate Keeping in Contact"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do phone calls from long-lost friends excite you? You\u2019re not alone. A new study finds people often underestimate how much their old friends will appreciate receiving a call from them out of the blue.<\/p>\n

Researchers found that participants who called, texted, or emailed someone in their social circle to say hello consistently underrated how much their friends would value hearing from them. Meanwhile, the friend receiving the message placed a much higher value on the surprise social interaction.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are fundamentally social beings and enjoy connecting with others,\u201d explains lead author Peggy Liu, Ph.D., from the University of Pittsburgh, in a\u00a0media release<\/a>. \u201cThere is much research showing that\u00a0maintaining social connections<\/a>\u00a0is good for our mental and physical health. However, despite the importance and enjoyment of social connection, our research suggests that people significantly underestimate how much others will appreciate being reached out to.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study featured several experiments involving over 5,900 people, looking at what factors affect the amount of\u00a0appreciation someone feels\u00a0when others contact them. In one experiment, study authors asked half of the participants to remember the last time they reached out to someone in their social circle \u201cjust because\u201d or \u201cjust to catch up\u201d after not speaking with them for a long time. The rest of the group took the opposite approach, remembering when\u00a0a long-lost friend\u00a0reached out to them.<\/p>\n

\"friends<\/a>
Andrea Piacquadio\/Pexels.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The two groups then had to rate on a seven-point scale (one meaning \u201cnot at all\u201d and seven representing \u201cto a great extent\u201d) how much the person receiving this communication appreciated or felt grateful, thankful, or pleased about the message. For people making the call, this meant guessing how much their friend enjoyed hearing from them. The people receiving the call had to rate how much they appreciated hearing from a long-lost pal.<\/p>\n

Researchers say that many people have likely lost touch with members of their social circle in recent years. Aside from people naturally drifting away from those who went to high school or college, the pandemic has added another\u00a0layer of social isolation<\/a>\u00a0for some.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the team says people often worry about how someone perceives the gesture of reaching out after\u00a0a long period of silence. However, the new study finds saying hello \u201cjust because\u201d is a much more welcome surprise than many may think.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sometimes pause before reaching out to people from my pre-pandemic social circle for a variety of reasons. When that happens, I think about these research findings and remind myself that other people may also\u00a0want to reach out to me\u00a0and hesitate for the same reasons,\u201d Liu concludes. \u201cI then tell myself that I would appreciate it so much if they reached out to me and that there is no reason to think they would not similarly appreciate my reaching out to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the busy lives that everyone has, it can be challenging to keep in touch with old friends. Most people only keep in contact through social media, but you never know what a phone call or text message will mean to someone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do phone calls from long-lost friends excite you? You\u2019re not alone. A new study finds people often underestimate how much their old friends will appreciate receiving a call from them out of the blue. Researchers found that participants who called, texted, or emailed someone in their social circle to say hello consistently underrated how much…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":7447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,73],"tags":[61],"class_list":["post-7444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-happier-you","category-relationships","tag-friendship"],"yoast_head":"\nNew Study Finds That People Misjudge How Much Old Friends Appreciate Keeping in Contact<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Do phone calls from long-lost friends excite you? You\u2019re not alone. A new study finds people often underestimate keeping in contact.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2022\/08\/new-study-finds-that-people-misjudge-how-much-old-friends-appreciate-keeping-in-contact.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Study Finds That People Misjudge How Much Old Friends Appreciate Keeping in Contact\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Do phone calls from long-lost friends excite you? You\u2019re not alone. A new study finds people often underestimate keeping in contact.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2022\/08\/new-study-finds-that-people-misjudge-how-much-old-friends-appreciate-keeping-in-contact.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Inspiration Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-08-05T13:22:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2022\/08\/friendsincontact-credit-pexels.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"465\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lauren McKeithen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"New Study Finds That People Misjudge How Much Old Friends Appreciate Keeping in Contact","description":"Do phone calls from long-lost friends excite you? 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