Why people seek companionship

Research shows, for example, that listening and participating in a two-person conversation is actually less mentally taxing for the brain than giving or listening to a monologue, even though what we understand about how we process language would suggest otherwise. Other studies show children learn better by interacting with other rather than observing. One theory: people have an innate and very powerful need to belong. Some key arguments published in the journal Psychological Bulletin in is evidence that shows most people make social ties under most conditions — and most people try to avoid breaking those ties if they can.

Another way to think about it is the social baseline theory , which suggests the human brain expects access to social relationships. Another oft-cited experiment found that individuals actually perceived a hill to be steeper if they were standing at the bottom alone compared with when they stood at the bottom with a friend, Simon-Thomas notes. So what about the coworker who cannot stop preaching his political views?

They can help us extend our status quo and how we see the world, she explains. Social belongingness is essential to human life just as food, water, and shelter. We choose certain people to be apart of our lives, whether as a friend or as a romantic partner based on our attraction.

We become attracted by their close proximity and their physical appearance.. The relationships in our lives allow us to feel safe, have resources to live, and give us the physical contact that we crave as human beings.

Schneider, F. Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. This entry was posted on Thursday, May 24th, at pm and is filed under Uncategorized.

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Enable or Disable Cookies. Enable All Save Settings. Psychology Professor Hani Henry helps explain why we fall in love. By News AUC. Intimacy Falling in love for intimate reasons can be described as having a basic friendship; it lacks commitment and passion.

Passion Letting ourselves fall in love because of desire or strong feelings for a person is normal. Commitment Commitment is complete love.