What are the health benefits of being social?‏‏
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Humans are born into social groups and live their entire lives as a part of society, so the social element can’t easily be removed from the evolution of an individual. But how does social contact affect our health?‏
We are social beings, and interacting with people is in our nature. But it also brings us benefits on a mental and physical level.‏
As human beings, we dream, learn, grow, and work as part of society. The society that we’re born into and the societies that we navigate throughout our lives shape our personal identities.‏
And in fact, so keen are we to communicate with each other — even beyond geographical limitations — that we’ve developed a plethora of tools to help us achieve that, including pen and paper, telegraph, telephone, and the Internet.‏
When I asked my colleagues in the ‏Medical News Today‏ office what benefits — if any — they thought that they derived from social connection, most of them said that they found some measure of comfort in social interaction.‏
Some colleagues said that they enjoyed the shared experiences, whereas others explained that friends kept them motivated to do “some healthful activities from time to time.” Others said that being around friends helped them to “destress and put things into perspective.”‏
Even the most introverted among us crave social contact from time to time. But why is that, and does being social bring us any actual health benefits?‏
In this Spotlight, we investigate why humans thrive in society, and how social interaction impacts our mental and physical well-being.‏
Why are we a social species?‏
It may be intuitive to say that being social has helped our species to not only survive but also thrive over millions of years. But why is that so?‏
A ‏study from 2011‏, which was published in the journal ‏Nature‏, argues that being social became a key strength for the primate ancestors of humans when they switched from foraging for food by night (so that they could use darkness as a shield) to carrying out their activities by day (which rendered them more vulnerable to a wider range of predators).‏
Another more ‏recent study‏ — also in the journal ‏Nature‏ — suggests that early hominids may have evolved a basic form of language because they needed more advanced communication to share ideas. This, they say, helped our ancestors to develop tools that allowed them to live better and evolve further.‏
Researchers have also suggested that humans are ‏innately compassionate‏ beings, and that our compassion and empathy have served us well — since the capacity to care and share is highly valued by individuals looking for a mate.‏
After all, in order for a species to survive, its members have to not only procreate, but also be able to shield their offspring from harm and shield peers from injury, so that they can derive strength from collaboration in the face of adversity.