Arthur C. Brooks says friendships account for about 60% of the difference in life satisfaction between people. Close friends rank alongside romantic partnerships as the top drivers of happiness, while work, income, and religion matter less for overall well-being.
It's impossible to be happy without friends. It just is. There's decades of research that actually shows this, that people who don't have friends are way, way less happy. They're lonely. They want to have friends too. Friendships account for 60% of the difference in happiness between individuals. So the variance in happiness in individuals, we measure that variance using regression analysis and friendship on the right-hand side of these regression models soaks up 60% of the variance in happiness between individuals. That's unbelievable. Basically, if you want to know the difference between the biggest variance drivers, it's successful romantic partnership and close friends. That's kind of what it's all about. And other stuff just kind of pales in comparison. That doesn't mean nothing else is important. I'm just talking about life satisfaction. There are other things that matter. Don't get me wrong. It's not like it doesn't matter if you make a living. It doesn't matter if you practice your religion. I'm not saying that. That stuff really matters a lot for other things. But just for pure life satisfaction, yeah, friendship. It's really a big deal.
