Just because, without any reason at all, sending a message or calling a friend has a great effect. Researchers are investigating how much such unexpected gestures are appreciated and come to a clear conclusion.
According to a new study, simply sending friends or acquaintances a message or calling them triggers more joy than you might have thought before. People underestimate how much such gestures are valued, researchers led by Peggy Liu from the University of Pittsburgh write in the journal “Journal of Personality and Social Psychology”. The more surprising the call, e-mail or text message comes, the more the gesture is appreciated by the recipient.
“Humans are social creatures and enjoy connecting with other people,” says Liu. “There’s already a lot of research showing that maintaining social connections is good for our mental and physical health. But despite the importance and joy of social connections, our research shows that people grossly underestimate how much other people do will appreciate it if we contact you.”
For their research, the scientists led by Liu a series of experiments with a total of more than 5900 participants. For example, they were asked to remember the last time they contacted someone just like that – and when they were last contacted just like that. In addition, they were asked to rate on a scale from one to seven how much they thought the contact person valued this gesture – and how much they themselves valued being contacted. In other experiments, the participants were asked to contact acquaintances themselves and collect the reactions to them.
The research results showed that doubts or worries about surprising contacts are mostly unfounded, says Liu. “For many reasons, I sometimes hesitate before reaching out to people I interacted with pre-pandemic. When that happens, I think about this research and remind myself that other people may want to contact me too, and for the same reasons I hesitate. Then I tell myself that I would appreciate it so much if you would contact me and there’s no reason you wouldn’t appreciate it if I did.”
