{"id":30413,"date":"2022-07-18T01:35:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-18T01:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=30413"},"modified":"2022-07-21T11:25:07","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T11:25:07","slug":"lost-touch-with-someone-reach-out-your-friend-will-likely-appreciate-it-more-than-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/lost-touch-with-someone-reach-out-your-friend-will-likely-appreciate-it-more-than-you-think\/","title":{"rendered":"Lost touch with someone? Reach out \u2013 your friend will likely appreciate it more than you think"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Peggy Liu<\/a>, University of Pittsburgh<\/a><\/em> and Lauren Min<\/a>, University of Kansas<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Research Brief<\/a> is a short take about interesting academic work.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The big idea<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The next time you wonder whether to reach out to a friend, family member, classmate or other person who\u2019s been out of touch for a long time, go ahead and do it. According to our just-published research<\/a>, it\u2019s likely they\u2019ll appreciate it more than you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a series of 13 experiments involving over 5,900 participants, we \u2013 along with colleagues SoYon Rim<\/a> and Kate Min<\/a> \u2013 wanted to investigate whether people accurately predict how much their social contacts appreciate being reached out to<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one experiment we conducted, college students wrote a note \u201cto check in and say hello\u201d to a classmate they hadn\u2019t interacted with in a while. Then we asked them how much they thought their classmate would appreciate receiving this note.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, we delivered these notes to their classmates and asked the recipients how much they appreciated receiving them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We found that the students who received the notes were much more appreciative of the gesture than the students who wrote them had anticipated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other experiments varied the scenario by involving older adults as participants rather than college students, switching the written message to a small gift \u2013 such as cookies or coffee \u2013 and comparing how much the sender underestimated the appreciation that an emotionally distant contact would feel compared with a close contact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall they yielded the same basic finding: People tended to underestimate how much others appreciated hearing from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What drives this underestimation? Our results suggest that it\u2019s related to how little the people reaching out factor in the surprise felt by those being contacted. When we asked recipients what they focused on when indicating how appreciative they felt, they reported paying a lot of attention to their positive feelings of surprise, which were linked to how appreciative they felt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comparatively, potential senders did not report focusing much on recipients\u2019 positive feelings of surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also mattered whether the two parties were already in a close relationship. People\u2019s underestimations were even greater when their contact was a distant acquaintance because these recipients were especially surprised at being contacted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why it matters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Many people can name at least one person with whom they would like to reconnect. Taking a new job, moving to a different city, becoming a parent, or the busyness of everyday life \u2013 these are just some of the life events and circumstances that can cause people to lose touch. Then, if the desire to reconnect arises on one side, doubts may arise about whether the other person may appreciate being contacted out of the blue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When people consider taking the initiative to reach out, especially after a prolonged period of no contact, they may worry about being rejected. This worry might keep them from reaching out in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our research lessens this challenge by showing that often, these gestures will be much more appreciated than one might expect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What other research is being done<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our findings fit within a growing stream of research examining the tendency to underestimate others\u2019 appreciation of various social exchanges. For example, other researchers have found that people underestimate how much others appreciate receiving compliments<\/a> or expressions of gratitude<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work adds to this area by broadening the scope of the contexts in which people underestimate how much social exchanges are appreciated. Reaching out could but need not require giving compliments or expressing gratitude \u2013 the gesture can be as simple as checking in with someone to show that one is thinking about them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peggy Liu<\/a>, Ben L. Fryrear Chair in Marketing and Associate Professor of Business Administration, University of Pittsburgh<\/a><\/em> and Lauren Min<\/a>, Assistant Professor of Marketing, University of Kansas<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peggy Liu, University of Pittsburgh and Lauren Min, University of Kansas The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea The next time you wonder whether to reach out to a friend, family member, classmate or other person who\u2019s been out of touch for a long time, go ahead and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":30414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,38],"tags":[11142,3646,5714,2197,7727,5895,12166],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30413"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30415,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30413\/revisions\/30415"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}