MindCraft Challenges

Social media improves well-being when it involves interpersonal capitalization. Positive responses to capitalization attempts online also increase social bonding.

Of course, it is also possible to use social media to harm others and engage in destructive capitalization responses.

Challenge: Intentionally support other people’s basic psychological needs in your social media spaces by engaging in intentional active-constructive interpersonal capitalization. Choose two or three people that you want to strengthen your social bonds with and engage their social media posts by celebrating positive events and continuing conversations with them about their positive experiences. How do intentional constructive responses to capitalization on social media influence your relationships?

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An overview of interpersonal capitalization
https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12407
Online sharing strengthens social bonds
https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001182

Synchronization is a reflection of attachment and close relationships. Synchronization can also help build relationships by strengthening social attachments.

Scott Wiltermuth and Chip Heath conducted several experiments to demonstrate the effects of intentional synchronization on group cooperation. In one study, people walked together and synchronized their steps. In another, people moved plastic cups from side to side in time with a song while they sang along (the song was “O Canada”, the people were Americans, and the point was that the song could be an out-group song). People cooperated more in a group game after synchronizing their actions (compared to unsynchronized pairs).

Challenge: Find a friend. Go for a synchronized walk. (Sing “O Canada” together?) Try working on a project together. Did synchrony make a difference?

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Intentional Synchrony Experiments
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02253.x
Synchrony Across Brains
https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-080123-101149

John Gottman reports that improving friendship between romantic partners reduces negative interactions during conflict. Gottman teaches improving friendship as part of his marriage education program with multiple exercises, but there are simple everyday actions that people can take to build their friendships.

Challenge: Brenda O’Connell and her colleagues demonstrated that intentional gratitude and kindness towards friends can improve relationship quality. They asked people to either “Write and deliver a positive message (email, text, face-to-face) to someone in your social network (friend, family, colleague), thanking or praising them for something you are grateful for” or to engage in acts of kindness for someone in their social network at least 3 or 4 times in a week. Try this for yourself and see if those relationships improve.

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Gottman’s assessment of interventions
https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327698jfc0503_1
O’Connell’s friendship-building study
https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2015.1037860