12 Science-Backed Ways To Make Friends

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12 Science-Backed Ways To Make Friends

Okay, you caught us. We at Cracked are losers who have no friends and decided to research how to get some of those on company time. But can you blame us? After all, friendships are incredibly important for our health and quality of life, but it can be incredibly challenging to make new friends once you're out of school. And let's not forget a certain pandemic made friendship maintenance even more difficult these past few years. 

We previously collected 18 Tips To Make Friends As An Adult but this time we're turning to the experts. No, not Jessica H., the most popular girl in our grade, but nerdy scientists who spent months obsessively researching how to make friends. Researchers have done many studies on how to best form bonds with strangers and, hey, we at Cracked believe in peer-reviewed research, so we thought we'd gather them up, and maybe you, our dear reader, could benefit from them as well.

Join more online communities

Join lots of online groups One study showed that online friendships were more affected by the quantity not quality of groups and organizations joined. Become an active member of many communities, and see what sticks. CRACKED.COM

Source: ScienceDaily

Become more empathetic

Extend empathy Teenage boys who showed empathy attracted 1.8 more girl friends than those who didn't. (However, the reverse wasn't true when the genders were swapped. Boys, up your standards.) CRACKED.COM

Source: ScienceDaily

Follow chimps' friendship patterns

Invest in relationships with low tension As humans age, we're more likely to prefer smaller groups of already-established, low-conflict friendships. This same pattern is even seen in chimpanzees. CRACKED.COM

Source: Science

Find your identity outside of your income

Stop basing your self-worth on financial success 100P Researchers have discovered that people who base their self-worth in money feel pressure and lack of autonomy, which harms their social connections. CRACKED.COM

Source: SAGE Pub

Make your existing friends jealous (maybe)

To strengthen friendships, make them jealous This sounds counterintuitive, but one study showed that when a person feels threatened by a friend becoming good friends with someone else, the person may start becoming a better friend. CRACKED.COM

Source: ScienceDaily

Put consistent effort into relationships you want to grow

Remember people's birthdays 'Commitment signals' like wishing someone a happy birthday or listening to their problems are evaluated in the brain the same way that economic value is. To ensure people value your friendship, make sure your actions are consistent. CRACKED.COM

Source: Social Neuroscience

Location, location, location

Sit next to someone regularly Unsurprisingly, a study found that even dissimilar students who were assigned to sit next to each other were more likely to become friends. CRACKED.COM

Source: PLOS ONE

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