Giving a gift can make you feel less lonely

Giving a gift, or sending a note of appreciation, boosts the mood and wellbeing of the giver, as well as the recipient. Now new work in Emotion finds that these kinds of prosocial acts can even reduce feelings of loneliness as well. This is significant because, as authors Isabelle Lanser and Naomi I. Eisenberger at UCLA note, interventions aimed at reducing loneliness have so far had only limited success.

Lanser and Eisenberger ran two online studies on a total of 574 mostly female students. In the first, one group of participants was asked to pick someone from their social network to receive a $10 gift card, and then to choose a specific card from a number of options such as vouchers for Starbucks or Amazon. This process was designed to take some time, to encourage the participant to really think about the recipient and what they would want. Participants in another group were told they had themselves received a $10 gift card. They then picked out which they one they wanted (this process took the same amount of time).  A third, control group just rated brand logos.

All participants had completed various scales relating to mood and loneliness before and after the task. And the researchers found that those who had given the gift card afterwards reported a bigger reduction in loneliness and greater positive mood than either the 'keepers' or the control group.

In the second study, the researchers looked at whether prosocial behaviour that was less tangible than giving a gift would produce similar effects on mood and loneliness. Two groups of participants reflected on a time in their lives when someone in their social circle had given them emotional support, and how they had felt about it. Members of one of these groups then wrote a 100-word message of thanks for that support, which they knew would be sent.

The 'thankers' afterwards again reported a bigger reduction in loneliness — and felt happier — than those who had only reflected on that support or a control group (though participants who only reflected on support did report a bigger reduction in loneliness and greater happiness than the control group).

Overall, the results from the studies suggest that thinking about a positive social experience and also engaging in a prosocial behaviour — sending the relevant person a gift or a message of appreciation — works to reduce feelings of loneliness.

It should be stressed, though, that each participant completed the study in half an hour. Would the positive impacts on loneliness last beyond that brief time — and if so, for how long? Only further research will tell. Another limitation is that, as the researchers note, as the participants were mostly young female students, the results won't necessarily generalise to other groups.

It's also worth noting, though, that reductions in feelings of loneliness were reported before these participants even had chance to hear back from their recipients. It's possible that positive feedback in response to the gift cards or messages might reduce feelings of loneliness still further — and that the giving might lead to lasting improvements in that relationship, which might drive even bigger, or more lasting, reductions in loneliness. This is yet to be explored.

Taken together, though, the results "highlight the importance of engaging in activities that involve outreach and [the] initiation of social contact, which might be counterintuitive when one is experiencing loneliness," the researchers conclude.