Anyone who’s moved to a new town knows it isn’t exactly easy to make new friends, especially as an adult. Now a new report reveals just how long of a commitment you need to give someone in order to turn them into a pal.
Researchers from the University of Kansas set out to determine exactly how long it takes to turn someone into a friend, and the answer may surprise you. To make this determination, study author Dr. Jeffrey Halltracked two groups of people at new stages in their life -- a group of adults who recently relocated to a new area of the country, as well as a group of freshman at the University of Kansas. In both cases, subjects were to identify one person they met since their move that had friend potential, and then the progression of their relationship was tracked.
Needless to say, the more time subjects spent with a person, the closer they became, with the relationship turning to a “casual” friendship after spending about 30 hours together. Things progressed to actual friends after about 50 hours, but didn’t reach “close” friend until after about 140 hours. Now for someone to be a best friend, that took true commitment, with that label not a possibility until the folks spent at least 300 hours together.
Of course, it isn’t just about the hours. The study argues that it’s howfolks spend those hours that determine whether people became friends. People are more likely to get close to each other if they:
- Watched a TV series together
- Shared jokes and laughter
- Had long, meaningful, deep and intense conversations
- Watched a movie together
- Engaged in friendly competition by playing video games
One way of spending time together that didn’t necessarily produce friendships was work. The study finds that when it comes to a working situation, the more time someone spent with a person in the office, the less likely they were to become friends.
Source: The Daily Mail