Having hundreds of Facebook friends may seem like the ultimate sign of popularity and happiness, yet it could actually suggest the opposite.
Researchers from Maine compared personality traits to levels of happiness among more than 16,000 people over a four-year period.
People listed as extroverted at the start of the study gradually saw an increase in wellbeing, but as this wellbeing and happiness increased, the same participants became more introverted and withdrawn.
This suggests having lots of friends can ultimately make people less sociable, and can increase sadness – the opposite of what the researchers expected.
Lead author Professor Christopher Soto added this could be because the participants felt they no longer needed to seek out new relationships.
Professor Soto, from Colby College, analysed personality traits and well-being among 16,367 participants who were surveyed repeatedly over four years.
He was able to examine which aspects of personality at the start of the study predicted which patterns of well-being later on, and whether wellbeing at the start was linked to later personality changes.
The results showed that people ‘who were initially extraverted, agreeable, conscientious, and emotionally stable subsequently increased in well-being.’
But they also revealed that people with high levels of well-being to begin with ‘subsequently became more agreeable, conscientious, emotionally stable, and introverted.’
Increased introversion for happy people was the opposite of what had been expected because higher extraversion usually leads to greater future happiness.
It suggests that the influence of personality on well-being was ‘somewhat stronger’ than well-being on personality, yet both were significant when forming relationships.
So, we can simple conclude that having large number of facebook friends doesn’t necessarily increase your standard of life.
