In a new study, researchers found that it takes about 34 hours of hanging out with someone before they can call themselves friends.
The study determined that the optimal recipe for friendship consists of 11 meetings, lasting an average of 3 hours and 4 minutes each, spread out over a period of 5.5 months.
According to the data, everyone has five reliable “shoulder-to-cry-on” buddies.
One of the most valued characteristics of a close friend is the willingness to be there for them during tough times.
Fisherman’s Friend is a brand of menthol sweets, and the poll found that two-thirds of respondents felt they needed a sizable social circle to be happy.
Dunbar’s number, a hypothesis proposing the limit to the number of people with whom we can establish stable social relationships, was derived from Dunbar’s analysis of the study conducted at Oxford University.
According to “Dunbar’s number,” a concept popularised by the anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar, most people can have 150 or so truly close friends.
This includes about five very close friends, fifteen close friends, fifty social friends, and one hundred fifty acquaintances.
According to Professor Dunbar, “friendships are the single most important factor determining both our psychological and physical well-being.”
The results of this survey demonstrate that two-thirds of us can count on a closest friend to be there for us emotionally and to offer sound advise just when we need it. For this reason, it’s crucial that you create and keep friends.
This comes after a survey published in 2019 found that the average American had not created a new friend in the preceding five years.
Some 42% of respondents indicated their lack of extrovert traits stopped them from meeting new people and making friends.
Some of the reasons given include moving to a new place, a dislike of the drinking culture, a lack of social interests, and an unwillingness to drink.