The secret to happiness? Having at least 10 good friends
Agnes McDermott stashed this in friends
The secret to happiness? Having at least 10 good friends
By FIONA MACRAE
In love, two is company and three's a crowd.
But in friendship, ten is the magic number.
Being able to count at least ten people as friends makes us happy, researchers say.
But those with five or fewer are likely to be miserable with their lot, they claim.
Their study of hundreds of men and women also found that contented sorts tend to have lots of close friends and regularly make new ones.
Sociable: Happier people tend to have more close friends, as long as they don't divide themselves too thinly
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1079997/The-secret-happiness-Having-10-good-friends.html
Stashed in: #happiness, Introverts!, happiness
That's what I'm thinking. It's for extreme extroverts.
For most of us, a few friends are plenty.
I guess the odds depend somewhat on how we define "close?" In any case, I do believe that having a good number of friends, and some subset we'd consider close friends, is very important to happiness. What is more satisfying in life than sharing it with people we care about?
Family consumes most of those close moments -- kids, spouse, siblings, parents, nephews, nieces.
If after those time commitments there's time to have a friend or two, then you're doing better than most.
Family, sleep, and work all take priority. 10 close friends on top of that? No way.
You make a good point, Adam. Family does take up much of that time. It seems like we all need a number of close connections, but that must be necessarily split up between family and friends. Maybe it works like this: more family, fewer friends, and less family, more friends? In any case, if I didn't have to sleep and work, I would definitely have more friends!
10:37 AM Jul 05 2013