The human desire for companionship may feel boundless, but research suggests

游客2024-01-24  20

问题    The human desire for companionship may feel boundless, but research suggests that our social capital is finite—we can handle only so many relationships at one time. Social scientists have used a number of ingenious (巧妙的) approaches to measure the size of people’s social networks; these have returned estimates ranging from about 250 to about 5,500 people. Looking more specifically at friendship, a study using the exchange of Christmas cards as an indicator for closeness put the average person’s friend group at about 121 people.
   However vast our networks may be, our inner circle tends to be much smaller. The average American trusts only 10 to 20 people. Moreover, that number may be shrinking: From 1985 to 2004, the average number of confidants that people reported having decreased from three to two. This is both sad and consequential, because people who have strong social relationships tend to live longer than those who don’t.
   So what should you do if your social life is lacking? To begin with, don’t dismiss the humble acquaintance. Even interacting with people with whom one has weak social ties has a meaningful influence on well-being. Beyond that, building deeper friendships may be largely a matter of putting in time. A recent study out of the University of Kansas found that it takes about 50 hours of socializing to go from an acquaintance to a casual friend, an additional 40 hours to become a "real" friend, and a total of 200 hours to become a close friend.
   If that sounds like too much effort, reviving dormant (休眠的) social ties can be especially rewarding. Reconnected friends can quickly recapture much of the trust they previously built.
   The academic literature is clear: Longing for closeness and connection is pervasive (无处不在的), which suggests that most of us are stumbling through the world looking for companionship that could be easily provided by the lonesome stumblers all around us. So set aside this article, turn to someone nearby, and try to make a friend. [br] What does the Christmas card study show?

选项 A、Christmas cards are the indicator of social networks.
B、Christmas cards determine people’s friend group.
C、One’s social network is limited.
D、The more Christmas cards, the better.

答案 C

解析 推理判断题。由定位句可知,为了更具体地研究友谊,一项研究使用圣诞卡的交换来作为亲密指标,结果显示普通人的朋友群大约为121人,可知人们的社交网是有限的,故答案为C)。A)“圣诞卡只是社交关系的指标”,由定位句可知,圣诞卡的交换是用来作为亲密指标,故排除;B)“圣诞卡决定人们的朋友群”,由定位句可知,圣诞卡的交换显示人们的朋友数量,并非决定人们的朋友群,故排除;D)“圣诞卡越多越好”,文中没有提到相关内容,故排除。
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