There are lots of benefits to being a member of a
community. People feel more secure when
they know that they have others around them who share their goals and care
about their progress. That is one reason
why it can be so stressful to move or to travel. Suddenly, you are cut off from your regular
group.
But, how much of a connection do you need with others in
order to get some benefit from being a member of a group? This question was explored in a paper by
Gregory Walton, Geoffrey Cohen, David Cwir, and Steven Spencer in the March,
2012 issue of the Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology. Their
research suggests that you don’t need much connection before you start to see
some benefit.
In one study, for example, college student participants read
an article that was supposed to have been written by a more advanced student
who had a positive experience in math.
The biography of the author of this article included their
birthday. For some participants, the biography
was set up so that the author of the article and the participant had the same
birthday. For others, the participant
and the author had birthdays several months apart.
After reading this article, participants were given a
geometry problem that is impossible to solve (involving coloring a map with a
fixed number of colors). Participants
who shared a birthday with the author of the article worked longer on the
impossible problem than participants who did not share a birthday. In addition, the participants who shared a
birthday with the author of the article had more positive thoughts about math
and rated the math department at their university as a friendlier and warmer
place.
Another study created an arbitrary relationship between
people. People were given a sticker to
wear at the start of the study. Later,
they were told that the people with that color sticker were either part of the
“numbers” group or part of the “puzzles” group.
After being placed in these groups, people were given the impossible
math problem used before. People who
were part of the “numbers” group worked on the problem longer than those who
were part of the “puzzles” group.
Interestingly, this effect only happened for those people who were
highly interested in math. People who
were not interested in math were not affected by being put in the “numbers”
group.
Putting these studies together, this work shows that even a
simple relationship between people based on arbitrary reasons like sharing a
birthday or being randomly assigned to a group) is enough to increase feelings
of warmth and motivation.
Ultimately, people seem wired to adopt the goals of the
people around with, particularly when they feel close to those others. Of course, that can be a good thing or a bad
thing depending on what the people around us are doing. For that reason, we have to be careful to
surround ourselves with other people who are engaging in the behaviors that we
would like to see in ourselves.
