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> As part of the Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index, saying hello to more than 1 neighbor was shown to correlate with greater self-perception of well-b

by Cpoll 3y ago

> As part of the Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index, saying hello to more than 1 neighbor was shown to correlate with greater self-perception of well-being. So this wasn't a study. As far as I can tell, the results can just as easily be summarized as "people who report higher well-being are more likely to greet neighbours." This is probably just the article to blame, the quotes they pick use words like "correlation." I find the five vs. six distinction rather interesting though. What's up with that? > Averaged across five dimensions that included career, communal, physical, financial, and social well-being, the increase which greeting a neighbor had led to around a 2-point increase on a scale of 0-100 up until the sixth neighbor, at which point further greetings had no measured impact.

hgsgm 3y ago
All finite sets of finite numbers have an average. The value of the average is the result of the biases in data collection. There is obviously a cap in the number of people you can practically greet in a day.
tgv 3y ago
> I find the five vs. six distinction rather interesting though. What's up with that? There's no reasonable mechanism in which greeting people causes well-being. So asking why it caps out at 6 makes no sense, unless you implicitly want to call out their bullshit. It's just another vague correlation in a overinterpreted study of noisy data.
- calibas 3y ago
  > There's no reasonable mechanism in which greeting people causes well-being. Socializing increases well-being, and greeting someone is socializing.
  - tgv 3y ago
    You're still making so many assumptions, all of which are unproven and causally unlinked. And how does socializing lead to social, community, career and physical well-being? Why would those peak at 6 but financial well-being at 11? In your hand-waiving explanation, it should keep rising. And even then, the effect wouldn't be caused by greeting, but by socializing. Greeting more people wouldn't help if you wouldn't socialize. You're also excluding the reverse causality: you can only greet 6 people per day if e.g. you're healthy. On a sickbed, it's much harder to do. The way it's stated in the headline is bollocks.
    - calibas 3y ago
      Socialization is causally linked to well-being. I assume you know enough about the subject that this isn't up for debate. Per sociologist Cornelia Mayr, "Greeting is one of the basic functions of socialization and the first step in connecting to people at a more personal level." Where's the assumptions there? I simply connected two established facts. Socialization increases well-being and greeting is socializing, therefore... As you point out, there's a lot more nuance to it, but to claim there's "no reasonable mechanism" is absurd. Greeting someone is a type of socialization, and socialization increases well-being.

by Cpoll 3y ago

hgsgm 3y ago

All finite sets of finite numbers have an average. The value of the average is the result of the biases in data collection. There is obviously a cap in the number of people you can practically greet in a day.

tgv 3y ago

> I find the five vs. six distinction rather interesting though. What's up with that? There's no reasonable mechanism in which greeting people causes well-being. So asking why it caps out at 6 makes no sense, unless you implicitly want to call out their bullshit. It's just another vague correlation in a overinterpreted study of noisy data.

calibas 3y ago
> There's no reasonable mechanism in which greeting people causes well-being. Socializing increases well-being, and greeting someone is socializing.
- tgv 3y ago
  You're still making so many assumptions, all of which are unproven and causally unlinked. And how does socializing lead to social, community, career and physical well-being? Why would those peak at 6 but financial well-being at 11? In your hand-waiving explanation, it should keep rising. And even then, the effect wouldn't be caused by greeting, but by socializing. Greeting more people wouldn't help if you wouldn't socialize. You're also excluding the reverse causality: you can only greet 6 people per day if e.g. you're healthy. On a sickbed, it's much harder to do. The way it's stated in the headline is bollocks.
  - calibas 3y ago
    Socialization is causally linked to well-being. I assume you know enough about the subject that this isn't up for debate. Per sociologist Cornelia Mayr, "Greeting is one of the basic functions of socialization and the first step in connecting to people at a more personal level." Where's the assumptions there? I simply connected two established facts. Socialization increases well-being and greeting is socializing, therefore... As you point out, there's a lot more nuance to it, but to claim there's "no reasonable mechanism" is absurd. Greeting someone is a type of socialization, and socialization increases well-being.