Many studies show the happiness and health benefits of having friends, but there is less talk about the importance of so-called weak ties, that is, those that are established with short conversations, with people with whom we do not have a deep relationship. friendship But these kinds of relationships also make a serious contribution to our emotional well-being, according to science.
The term weak ties was popularized by sociologist Mark S. Granovetter, who found that interacting with acquaintances contributes greatly to emotional well-being and happiness, contributes to having more and more diverse information, enhances innovation, and even helps improve professional career. Experts in social psychology add that they generate more happiness even when the interactions are not deep because they bring a broader perspective of the world around us, help give momentum in the workplace and serve as practice for communication skills with others
Having a chat on the street while walking the dog, talking in the park with other parents, a brief conversation in the elevator with a neighbor, discussing a game or news with another regular customer of your old bar… These are weak ties that they benefit health and contribute to happiness, even if they are banal.
“Sharing the same space at a given time, living in the same building, working in the same place, going to the same bar where you will drink a beer and say hello” are examples of liquid relationships, explains Guillermo Fauce, PhD in psychology and professor of Complutense University of Madrid. “It becomes a weak relationship when you name the person”, he summarizes.
For Ignacio Ramos Vidal, PhD in psychology, “at least you need to have the ability to recognize the person”, since on many occasions we establish weak ties with people whose names we do not know, but whom we place in a context and with whom we interact sometimes profitably.
We are social beings and “one of the key elements for happiness is precisely the relationship with others. We can’t be happy if we don’t relate,” insists Fauce.
“There is no doubt that weak relationships influence happiness”, says Ramos, because on the one hand relationships avoid social isolation “which we know from scientific evidence that conditions both mental and physical health”. Social support contributes to well-being and, in addition, dampens stress and psychological tension, according to this expert.
One of the studies that confirmed the importance of fluid relationships was that of Gillian M. Sandstrom and Elizabeth W. Dunn in 2014 with the title Social Interactions and Well-Being: The Surprising Power of Weak Ties amazing power of weak ties) . The researchers conducted several analyzes with students and concluded that “they experienced more happiness and a sense of belonging on days when they had interacted with more peers than usual.”
Low-intensity relationships generate more innovation compared to more constant and related ones. Ramos emphasizes that “having these weak ties, that is, being able to go beyond our closed, highly cohesive circle of people who are very similar to us, is important because it allows us to access non-redundant information”. “The more you compare, the more you talk to other people, the more open you will be to the world, the more part of the world you will feel and it will have a very positive effect on your social health, which is fundamental for there to be health in general”, adds Fauce .
Studies show that weak ties are also more useful for finding jobs, getting promoted, and even improving wages. A team of researchers from Harvard, Stanford, MIT and LinkedIn conducted the largest experimental study to date on the impact of social networks on the labor market in 2022 and found that weaker social connections have a much greater positive effect on labor mobility than stronger ties.
Elderly people, young people and teenagers, immigrants who have just arrived in a place, people who work remotely and spend a lot of time alone are some of the profiles for which establishing weak ties is of particular importance.
“We live in the century of unwanted loneliness. This problem is growing a lot among teenagers and young people because they have a lot of connections, but few relationships,” explains Fauce.
Cultivating weak relationships does not mean giving up strong ones, those we practice with our friends or family. The key is to combine them both, on the one hand because strong bonds cannot be established without having previously been weak, and on the other because some of the great benefits that liquid relationships bring us are different, such as openness in the world, the improvement of contacts, the feeling of belonging to the group and even to download secrets.
Experts warn that basing liquid relationships on the internet is a double-edged sword, because it is true that they help “bring relationships closer and overcome barriers that may exist such as shyness or fear” and for this they are proving very useful tools such as social networks and messaging services, although they have the danger of making relationships virtual and making them even more ephemeral.
