The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgames

EARTHDATE: June 29, 2008

Official News page 5


REAL LIFE NEWS: FRIENDS TURN MOUNTAINS INTO MOLEHILLS

by Hazed

The presence of a friend can make problems seem much less severe, researchers have discovered. Students were asked to estimate how steep a hill was, by tilting a board to match its slope. Those who had a friend nearby assessed the hill at 10% to 15% less steep than those who did the test alone.

The study was carried out by Simone Schnall at the University of Plymouth in the UK. It found that the longer the friends had been friends, and the warmer their relationship, the less steep the hill seemed to those being tested.

It wasn't just the presence of a close friend that helped. The team also discovered that merely thinking about a close friend or a family member made the hill seem anything up to 20% gentler. Thinking about a neutral person, or someone you dislike, didn't have this effect.

So all those cliches about a problem shared is a problem halved, or a friend in need is a friend indeed, turn out to be true after all.


Fed2 Star index Previous issues Fed 2 home page