Social connection
Relationships and purpose
5 briefs · 8 sources read and checked · 2 the evidence firmly supports
Does volunteering actually help you live longer?The association is real and conditional. Following 10,324 older adults for nearly eleven years, volunteering was associated with a 19 per cent lower risk of death among able-bodied people. Among people with disabilities there was no survival advantage at all, and across the whole sample the effect fell just short of significance. That split is the most informative part of the finding.1 source checkedWhat actually works for making friends as an adult?More opportunity to socialise helps less than expected. Across 50 studies, the approach that outperformed the others in randomised comparisons was addressing maladaptive social cognition, meaning the assumptions people carry into social situations. Overall effects in randomised trials were modest at around −0.20, and weaker study designs produced roughly double that, which is a warning about most of what gets cited.1 source checkedDoes gratitude practice actually work?The effect is real and small. Across 145 papers, 727 effect sizes and 24,804 people in 28 countries, gratitude interventions improved wellbeing at g = 0.19. It reached significance in some countries and not others, and no cultural variable the researchers tested explained why. People who start with the least gratitude gain the most.1 source checkedDoes a sense of purpose actually extend life?The association is large and consistent. Among 6,985 older US adults, those with the weakest sense of purpose had roughly two and a half times the mortality risk of those with the strongest. A meta-analysis of 53,499 people found a 23 per cent lower dementia risk per unit of purpose. All of it is observational, so it establishes association and cannot establish cause.2 sources checkedWhat does the evidence say about loneliness and lifespan?This is among the strongest findings in the whole of lifestyle research. Across 148 studies and more than 300,000 people, those with stronger social relationships were about 50 per cent more likely to be alive at follow-up, an influence the authors place alongside smoking and ahead of inactivity and obesity. The research is observational, so it establishes association rather than cause.3 sources checked
Strength of evidence
evidence-informed
Strength of evidence
evidence-informed
Strength of evidence
evidence-informed
Strength of evidence
evidence-based
Strength of evidence
evidence-based
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