Pandemics threaten the way we grow naturally and benefit from relationships

In times of over-warning during the pandemic, it is in the air whether some of our friendships survive.

Our brain Established method Stanford University Postdoctoral Fellow Andrea Courtney, who sees people as close friends and acquaintances, said, “The closest bonds are built on a huge investment in time and trust. Both are the current pandemics. May be challenging.” In California, I wasn’t involved in a newly published review of social ties.

The way humans develop and maintain relationships with friends and family is similar to the behavior of society and other primates in our evolutionary history: Review Published in Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical and Physical Sciences on Tuesday.

Many of us live in cities with millions of other people, but our society has 78 to 250 people, averaging about 154. This means that most people interact with a few other people, who remain stable for a relatively long time, according to review author Robin Dunbar, who is a professor emeritus of evolutionary psychology at the Department of Experimental Psychology at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. I am.

These people are organized into layers within social networks, which rely on cognitive, emotional, and time constraints on their ability to interact.

Organization of our cognitive social network

Why can most humans handle only about 154 people? Its value as a natural group size is related to the size of the brain Neocortex, It is involved in sensory perception, motor commands, spatial reasoning, language and conscious thinking. Having a robust personal social network Brain size And the ability for mental functioning to help evaluate other people.

These networks are made up of layers that are subject to various quality relationships. People considered close (family) and close friends are in close proximity and few. The types of friends and acquaintances spread far away from anyone and increase in number.

Human-animal bond

The review states that the binding process in both primates and humans is complex and time-consuming.

When animals face the problem of maintaining group stability in stress, the solution becomes a bound relationship, ensuring that members behave in the same way as each other and stay together. Primates realize this bond through social grooming. This is a time-consuming activity, but it can also create relationships, obligations and trust.

Whether or not we humans trust someone is partly determined by the amount of time we can spend with that person. Human social networks reflect how we spend time with certain people. This also determines the quality of those relationships. of Human bond The process contains two elements that work together. How the human version of social grooming activates endorphins and how our social brain uses interpersonal relationships.

When our brain activates and exhausts endorphins stimulated by human touch, we experience opioid-like relaxation, satisfaction and warmth. Provide bond, According to reviews. That bond leads to a spiritual sense of trust and duty to help each other, but intimacy and time requirements limit the number of relationships that can be made using touch.

Because endorphins are temporary, they take a long time to bond because they need to be continuously activated to maintain the level of binding.

According to reviews, laughter, singing, dancing, reading aloud, eating and drinking with other people are time-efficient and activities that can trigger the endorphin system in a “distance-grooming” way.

Virtual activity “slows the rate of decline in relationships, but it can’t stop dying in the end,” Dunbar said in an email.

“To do that, we have to meet each other. There’s something special about digital media that’s still comparable to being able to see the white eyes across the table and reach out and touch. “

Seven pillars of friendship

Our knowledge of others built through close contact helps us to build the trust and bond that others meet our needs.

Sharing common cultural aspects known as “the seven pillars of friendship,” language or dialect, origin, educational pathways, hobbies and interests, worldviews, musical interests and a sense of humor, relationship strength and altruism May affect the Prior analysis By Dunbar.

Pillar identifies communities of “communities you belong to” and “knowledge and behavior that you can understand in a very intuitive way,” Dunbar said in a review. Due to their commonality, both parties Understand each other well, Share similar interests and understand how trustworthy each other is.

Emotional and physical intimacy

The heart of human-primate friendship is close in that it is influenced by the time we spend together and feels intimate due to spatial and emotional proximity.

“This ensures that our bonded individuals stay together and are at hand when they need help,” Dunbar said in a review.

To keep someone in your close friends layer, you need to view them at least once a week. Best friends layer layers at least once a month. Friends are layering at least once a year, Dunbar said.

“Below these rates, the person will enter the lower layers within a few months,” he added. “The time to invest in direct dialogue with someone determines the feeling of emotional intimacy with the other person, and the sense that this is mutual.”

Social and health effects of personal connections

Trust and available time are important to social networks. When they are threatened by internal stressors or external threats (such as a pandemic), relationships are at risk of diminished emotional strength, major confusion, or ultimately collapse.

According to Dunbar, the likelihood of forgiveness and inherent bonds makes the family seem to recover from the lack of opportunities to interact. Friendships require more investment due to constant connections and are more likely to decline when under threat.

According to reviews, social disruption can negatively affect our health, well-being and longevity. The number and quality of a person’s intimate friendships can affect his or her well-being and ability to recover from illness. Smaller social networks can lead to greater isolation and loneliness, which can affect morbidity and mortality rates.

Dunbar has predicted some possible effects in light of the social distance, isolation, and lockdown imposed by Covid-19. Increased contact with old friends after lockdown; fear of getting a virus to reduce the frequency that some people (introverted and psychologically more cautious) visit strangers less often.

Dunbar predicts that social networks can shrink and reverse if the behavior and risk of infection of low-ranking friends and distant families are not assessed. According to reviews, the network pattern may return to normal within a year, but it may weaken friendships and become acquaintances.

“The more time we spend in closer relationships, the more likely we are to feel happy in the short term,” Courtney said. “In fact, recent research has observed a reduction in loneliness after a pandemic, which may reflect the fact that many people are now sticking to their closest ties. …Physical contact is much more limited, but many of these other (virtual) binding opportunities are as abundant as ever.”

During this time, Dunbar suggested keeping virtual contacts as much as possible to maintain relationships, emotional intimacy, and trust.

And remind your loved one, “I’m still here and thinking about you.”