Psychology Talk Series # 17: Lonely People Are the Best in Understanding Human Relationships

in #psychology6 years ago


Those who feel sad or lonely appear to be better at understanding social nature, researchers report. (Source: Yale)

I think this has always been a noticeable case even before the release of this study. The people I meet who are so-called fucked up happen to be more interesting to converse with--they know good music, really great films, life-changing books, politics, philosophy, etc. better than those emotionally stable ones who can't even hold a 5-minute conversation about simple current events and are still stuck in reading John Green's The Fault in Our Stars.


But Why?


Here's what Anton Gollwitzer, psychologist and co-author of the research has to say:

“It could be that the melancholic, introverted people are spending more time observing human nature than those who are busy interacting with others, or they are more accurate at introspection because they have fewer motivational biases,”

Introversion is a good position to watch society as a whole--how it works and how you're a part of it. When one is more in touch with themselves, they do not work to reach goals that are given as social norms but rather to reach their own standards for fulfillment that are usually more realistic and less agonizing. The thing is most introverts don't even actually try to accomplish these goals but rather stay confined with their still world.

That world they have is free from influences outside themselves that may cause them to have unrealistic and false assumptions about human interactions. With introversion, they are able to assess the whole society in an unbiased way, giving room for even the harshest of truths about it which extroverted people sometimes fail to accept or even see.

However, despite this undeniably reliable gift of introverts or sad people, they still couldn't just replace actual social psychologist. We can't deny how perfect they'd be for the part though.








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Being one of those introverted people who does observe human behavior I can say that human behavior is the main reason I am an introvert. I can tell almost 100% of the time when someone is up to no good or shallow beyond the level of what I wish to know.
I enjoyed your post, thank you!

You're welcome!

I think, if you could write more about the type of personality, i.e. introvert, extrovert and ambivert, your article would be better. This is just my opinion. Good luck.

Yeah would be better if written in a different article, certainly not in this one. I'd write all about that but that's just too basic in a way. I think many people have the knowledge about that already. Don't you think? It's all over Google and Facebook.

Well, you have to think it this way, any kind of information can be searched nowadays. When you write on a specific topics, and your readers are not familiar with it, you can't expect them to open a new tab on a browser, search for information from multiple sources and then come back for discussion. In a way, I think we are obligated to provide at least a brief introduction on the general topic before going to discussion. This will simplified whatever I have mentioned just now and readers would be tempted to follow you.

Honestly, if I encountered an interesting article but the author jump straight away to the topic of discussion that I'm not familiar with, I would bail out. You need to give them some reasons to stay and read. Interesting title but mediocre content will not necessarily guarantee support. Don't get me wrong, yours is good (not mediocre) but it could be better if you put some thought into it.

I'm not in anyway trying to disapprove your work but I saw some potential thus I give you everything I got. If you need any help, you can always contact me via Discord, in steemSTEM channel.

That's like underestimating people's knowledge, because I swear I didn't even use hardcore psych terms for anyone to have to Google anything. But anyway I appreciate the tip

It's all up to you. I can only suggest. Good luck.