Have you noticed it? It is significantly more difficult to make friends as an adult than as a child. According to a OnePoll survey published in 2019 (and conducted among 2,000 Americans), it would be much more complicated to form friendly ties from the age of 23-25. An observation that 45% of respondents deplore.
Feeling strong emotions together, the best solution for building a bond?
Fortunately, all is not lost. Because cognitive science researchers from the École Normale Supérieure (in Paris) may have found “the” recipe for friendship in adulthood. To do this, the scientists invited around forty pairs of strangers of the same sex (man-man and woman-woman, therefore) to watch videos together.
These videos generated either positive emotions (at the time they were comedies), negative emotions (films describing the suffering of animals in captivity) or neutral emotions (images from a university library). In half of the duos, the individuals could see each other during viewing, while in the other half, the two individuals were separated by a curtain.
Please note, both people must be able to see each other during viewing.
Verdict? Scientists found that participants felt more “connected” to each other when they watched a video together that generated strong emotions – positive or negative. Condition for it to work: that the two people can look at each other during the experience. This tip therefore does not work in complete darkness – at the cinema, for example!
In short: if you want to become friends with someone of the same sex as you, invite him/her to watch a horror or comedy film together. The start of a beautiful friendship story, without a doubt.
Source : Royal Society Open Science
Source: www.topsante.com
