How Buying Decorations Can Get You More Friends

Longacres Garden Centre London Road, Bagshot Surrey, GU19 5JB 01276 476 778 info@longacres.co.uk

Christmas and New Year have come

and gone, and the next holiday on the

horizon is Valentine’s Day. The

relatively holiday packed season is a

source of joy for people, but it can be

the cause of melancholy in others.

There are few remedies for individuals

who cannot get into the spirit of a

celebration, but that should not stop

their friends from trying.

You Need Friends

Behavioural science studies have

gained plenty of headway in

deciphering the chemical and physical

stimuli that makes humans feel good

about anything. Research has shown

that a variety of things ranging from

chocolate to forced laughing can send

the right brain signals to induce

happiness in people. The latest studies

show that there is another activity that

can significantly boost a person’s

happiness during times of depression:

spending money. Specifically, spending

money on decorations. This actually

plays into the human need of

community for security and

companionship.

It is a well-established fact that the human psychology is better tuned towards happiness when there are other people to share that happiness with. Scientists like to compare it to an endless mirror effect, where one person reflects someone else’s positive feelings whilst projecting their own.

Decorations Attract People

Before they can get to that point, though, they need to attract people, and

getting decorations is the first to doing that. Studies have measured the

effect of tidying up on positive impressions by asking people to rate

complete strangers on their perceived friendliness. Subjects of the

experiment did not meet the people they were going to rate, though; all

they had to go on were pictures of a house and its front yard.

The results showed that the subject had a consistent preference for houses

with decorations. Researchers explain that this effect is due to the

decorations acting as a social cue on the accessibility of the people living

inside. Homes with decorations are signs of life, which encourages an

approach from people outside the immediate circle.

The results even get higher when subjects were shown homes with

Christmas decorations. Holiday specific decorations elicited a better

response because they showed the subjects that the people living in the

homes are cohesive to community traditions. People who are willing to

conform to the established rules of the group they enter have historically a

better chance of meshing and finding friends.

SOURCES:

http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/topic/connecting/connection-

happiness

http://www.longacres.co.uk/

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494489800106