Minimal Social Interactions and Life Satisfaction: The Role of Greeting, Thanking, and Conversing

Abstract

Recent studies have highlighted the subjective well-being benefits of minimal social interactions (i.e., interactions with weak ties and strangers). However, the empirical work to date has primarily focused on minimal social interactions that involve conversations and relied on Western samples. In this research, we examined not only conversations but also momentary interactions (i.e., greeting and thanking) in a large, nationally representative, non-WEIRD sample from Turkey (N = 3,266). We used an instrumental variable approach to provide evidence for the direction of the association between minimal social interactions and life satisfaction. We also investigated the robustness of this approach by replicating one of our key findings in a very large, English-speaking, convenience sample (N = 60,141). Across the two samples, we found that having conversations with strangers and weak ties, as well as simply greeting and thanking weak ties, predicted greater life satisfaction.