Talking to another person, even if that person is a stranger, boosts people’s mood more than engaging in screen time or spending time sitting quietly alone, a new study found.
Researchers from the University of Georgia’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences also discovered that even if a chat with others boosted people’s mood more, they had originally assumed they’d get more enjoyment out of scrolling on their phones.
Doctoral student and lead author Christina Leckfor said, “When people are out in the real world, they have these options,” according to UGA Today, a news site at the University of Georgia.
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“We were interested in getting a sense of how people compare their options — both in terms of how they expect to feel and then how they actually feel after doing these things,” she also said, according to the site.
To understand those perceptions, researchers separated study participants into four groups.
Two groups predicted how they would feel about different actions — and two groups completed the assigned actions.
All groups then ranked the options from most to least enjoyable to rate how likely they were to experience a corresponding positive or negative emotion.
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Said Leckfor, “We thought people might underestimate how much they would enjoy talking to a stranger and overestimate how much they would enjoy using their smartphones,” according to a release on the UGA.edu site.
“Conversations with others increased positive emotions by about five points.”
“But that’s not what we found. Across our studies, people were actually more accurate in predicting how they would feel than we thought they’d be.”
When given three options — using a smartphone, sitting alone or talking to a stranger — the conversation with the other person held the “highest positive…
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