Popular People Live Longer
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
A person receiving positive feedback tends to feel better, be more socially comfortable and engaging, and to receive resources that help them on their journey.
This response and that assistance actually helps them become better. Better nutrition, more attentive and patient instruction. Etc. It's not just that things are done for them; it's that the feedback loops can improve their own performance.
A person receiving negative feedback tends to feel worse, to be socially uncomfortable and isolated, and the be denied helpful resources and assistance.
The negative feedback loop can result in that person withdrawing more and more. I've been there: Most people do not want to be where they are not welcome. It is one of the worst feelings.
Negative feedback loops tend to spill over into one's physical health, and that unhealthiness furthers the rejection.
It is not just the "big things." People with a popular appearance routinely get bigger servings, more engaged and attentive care. More respect.
It's pervasive. Pay attention. You'll see it all around you, every day, everywhere.
I've been burned a few times by "attractive" people who deliberately used this to their advantage. And I've been slowly figuring out, at an emotional, "feel it" level -- as opposed to intellectual -- why some people outright pre-emptively reject attractive people.
They've learned a life lesson: Interacting with those people too often places them on the losing side. Whether they are being deliberately used by those people, or just because of the comparative way they are treated by surrounding people.
That's the basis of social-belonging and other mindset interventions.[1]
For example, when you encounters difficulty as a freshman in college, do you think "I don't belong here", or "everyone has difficulties - I can get help, work hard, and succeed, like I've done in the past". Students who feel like they belong, build stronger support networks, more readily get help, feel better, and so. Both narratives then do feedback, and outcomes diverge. So surprisingly small interventions, to nudge the initial interpretation, like an hour in high school, or an essay at the beginning of a course, can have a surprisingly large impact.
I wonder if the future will look back our current lack of mental hygiene interventions, the way we now look back at the 1800's lack of physical hygiene interventions. Something like, well, it took a couple of decades, but NYC finally stopped politically-connected brewers from killing hundreds of children with adulterated milk from sick cows.[2]
[1] http://gregorywalton-stanford.weebly.com/papers.html [2] https://www.google.com/#q=swill+milk
(BTW the "negative feedback" loop mentioned in this topic is technically still a positive feedback, because the effects of the cause produces more of the cause. True negative feedback creates a counteractive force that promotes equilibrium- it has nothing to do with emotional negativity)
You're right, as I describe them, both are "positive" in terms of reinforcing amplification.
Positive feedback is when a process reinforces itself: the uglier you are, the more others hate you, the uglier you become.
Negative feedback is when a process cancels itself: the better you look, the more others envy and sabotage you, at some point you can't go further.
But in all seriousness, I am intrigued with the idea that merely by being popular, it will affect your DNA and turn on genes that correlate good health.
"Yet this same research reveals that there is more than one type of popularity, and most of us may be investing in the wrong kind. Likability reflects kindness, benevolent leadership and selfless, prosocial behavior. Research suggests that this form of popularity offers lifelong advantages, and leads to relationships that confer the greatest health benefits.
Likability is markedly different from status — an ultimately less satisfying form of popularity that reflects visibility, influence, power and prestige. Status can be quantified by social media followers; likability cannot."
I think they are making too big a claim, and they would've generated a more useful insight if they were controlling for pathological behaviors as well.
Are popular alcoholics likely to live longer? How about popular obese people? Is there, perhaps, a causal relation between being isolated/unpopular and pathological behaviors?
The study itself (the pnas source--and by the way, thanks to the NY Times for linking to the source) smacks of p-value fishing combined with making the most grandiose claim you can based on those p-values.
I'm not saying the paper is wrong in a mathematically provable way or that it couldn't be replicated. I'm saying that it isn't science that is meaningful or useful. It strikes me as resume-driven science.
Scientific click-bait.
Misinterpreting cause and correlation, am I doing this correctly?
In other words, is it enough to think you are popular to affect your DNA?
It might be our nature, but we can still decide. We have that ability.
They're also the basis for why I rationalize against procreation, at least for myself
Followed by fighting, famine, and death?
I'm so sick of seeing this "advice" everywhere on the internet. I've seen it on Twitter, on Reddit, and now here. Don't recommend drugs to people if you're not a doctor.
It's good that the drugs helped you, but it's not the same thing as saying "I went to a doctor and they put me on X and it helped." When you're talking about doing drugs outside of that paradigm, we don't know how many people have been hurt rather than helped. If 9 out of 10 people are harmed, you were just the lucky one.
Why would people far away be more interesting than people around you?
I'm in tune with the universe, I knew three days ago to get out of where I was at 7:59am. I was given this message. Sure enough the yellow truck showed up at 7:59am.
I just want to die now. I don't like the nature of reality, humanity, and how I fit into it all.
Totally understand that many think religions, in general, are BS/fake/etc. Have you considered reaching out to counseling services or a local support group (can be friends/family) to work thru stuff?
My bible study group meets weekly to study/discuss/act on some of the more obvious positive stuff from the Bible. We also support each other thru life in general. I think having a positive group that regularly meets to support each other is super conducive to life improvement as well as helping you thru darker times.
Hope things get better for you
That being said, do not commit suicide. Happiness is a choice, and you should chose it.
Nay I say! Free will - or the ability to be as useless as one wants - is one of the very few beautiful things in this world and a basic human right.
I shall not bow to your wicked ways! I shall continue to be completely useless until the last of my breaths! I will self-terminate when and how I please!
http://www.everything-game.com personally helped me see more value in life. It actually got me thinking that maybe having children wasn't the worst idea in the world.
Edit: for me personally, I get a lot out of helping people. I try to help people get better jobs and move out to Silicon Valley. I've done this for about half a dozen friends now, and all of them have had a great experience with it. I don't get any financial benefit from it; it's just great to see my friends doing "better" in life and to see them happier / more fulfilled. Same with my exes; I never truly understood why people can be so cruel to people they once loved. I'm happy for any way I've helped people I have loved and I have no desire to try to take anything away from them, even if some of them did shitty things to me. I can only hope that they got something out of it / learned from the bad parts.
So yeah, there's a suggestion for anyone reading this: if you want to try to feel better about being alive, help one of your friends get a better job. Teach them what you know or just help them get their foot in the door if you're in a position to do so.
About legality - I can see why people are hesitant to legalize suicide as it can be exploited for personal gain or for the thrill of pushing others off track... For the terminally ill it should be granted tho. That's just cruel.
At the above post - I just have a problem with people criticizing suicide as some horrible sin. More sticks! That will bring someone back!
Happiness is a choice?? Life itself is a choice! For all those who have yet to self-terminate and who keep marching off in the unknown I say thank you for still being here and best of luck!
Depression is within one's control, and this attitude of classifying it as a disease only keeps people feeling helplessly depressed and enriches the pockets of doctors and pharmaceuticals companies. My other comment in this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14655648
I'm sure you wonder why depressed people say they don't want to open up about their depression. It's because people like you make a point of pushing them down further and weighing them down with guilt.
>If you are considering choosing death, why not do so being useful to me?
Absolutely revolting.
"If you're going to kill yourself, at least do it for a cause so that it can help the world and isn't completely in vain"
I was clearly referring to the betterment of humanity.
Depression is not outside of your control. This encouragement of that kind of thinking classifying it as a "disease" is what keeps people depressed (and makes doctors money).
Was reading a book by a now successful guy who was suicidal all throughout his teenage years. He said that feeling suicidal was one of the best things to happen to him because it gave him this risk-taking attitude to just make the bold moves to turn his life around, because if things didn't work out, he could always kill himself.
Honestly it's unfortunate that this is considered too touchy a topic to talk about. We'd have less suicides if we could openly talk about it, and maybe you're committing the sin that you're accusing me of.
And as for concluding thoughts about world and human nature, I could suggest studying academic philosophy of those topic if you have extra time - to explore the enormous complexities that lies underneath those notions.
(note: Writing this comment at 4'o clock in the morning)
Everything is fine. The world will go on without me. The only thing wrong is that I'm still alive.
You want me to study philosophy? My issues with the primal nature of humanity is merely the surface issue. I decided long ago as a child that such behaviors are enough reason to never procreate and planted the strong seed of incessant suicidality.
Ive already spent a lifetime exploring complexity. Enough already.
If you're right, it's death that I seek, not help.
This is a lifetime desire. I decided as a child this world was shit. I've since seen more and more reasons to never procreate, and my desire to die has been consistent.
I've seen enough of this world. Thank you again. You're doing your part. Some people just want out, however.
All the best on your journey.
Except it doesn't! Why? Because the hidden variable is that wealthier people tend to be older! So you can easily construct a "proof" that the wealthier you are the more likely you are to die in the next few years...
"Some"? Where does the writer lives, on Mars?
I have no social media presence, nor do I care to.
The phrase "some X" does not connote that X are few, or many, merely that they are existent.
One would never write "even some adults appear to prefer spicy food" or "even some adults appear to be single" -- things that we know tons of people do.
You're self selecting for a group that re-enforces your opinion.
As of 2016, only ~70 percent of adults in the US use facebook. Of those 70%, ~25% use it once a week or less.
Those who don't care are MANY (probably most).
That leaves a 75% that use it more than once a week. Let's be charitable and make it only a 25% (1/3 of them) that use it multiple times per week or daily and care about their standing there.
That's still a whooping 40-50 million people, in the US alone, and of those lots of people do care and are influenced by their social media status.
It's not like "even some adults" as if it is as rare as butterfly collectors or septagenarias that are into Eminem or something -- it's a huge social phenomenon.
A 50% of the adult population (70% * ~0.75) that use it more than once a week is already impressive. And 'adults' is the wrong metric, since it includes anyone 18-100. So "70% of adults in the US use FB" doesn't reveal the whole picture, as a lot of them are not even in the relevant demographic (e.g. people that were already 50 or so when FB hit the scene in the mid-late 2000s).