Well-being in social interactions: Examining personality-situation dynamics in face-to-face and computer-mediated communication.

Abstract

Decades of research show that people's social lives are linked to their well-being. Yet, research on the relationship between social interactions and well-being has been largely inconclusive with regard to the effects of person-situation interactions, such as the interplay between contextual factors (e.g., interactions occurring in physical vs. digital contexts, different interaction partners) and dispositional tendencies (e.g., Big Five personality traits). Here, we report on exploratory and confirmatory findings from three large studies of college students (Study 1: N = 1,360; Study 2: N = 851; Study 3: N = 864) who completed a total of 139,363 experience sampling surveys (reporting on 87,976 social interactions). We focus on the effects of different modes of communication (face-to-face [FtF] interactions, computer-mediated communication [CMC], and mixed episodes [FtF + CMC]), and types of interaction partners (close peers, family members, and weak ties). Using multilevel structural equation modeling, we found that FtF interactions and mixed episodes were associated with highest well-being on the within-person level, and that these effects were particularly pronounced for individuals with high levels of neuroticism. CMC was related to lower well-being than FtF interactions, but higher well-being than not socializing at all. Regarding the type of interaction partner, individuals reported higher wellbeing after interactions with close peers than after interactions with family members and weak ties, and the difference between close peers and weak ties was larger for FtF interactions than for CMC. We discuss these findings with regard to theories of person-situation interactions and research on wellbeing and social interactions.

Who benefits from which activity? On the relations between personality traits, leisure activities, and well-being.

“…First, as discussed above, effects may reside at shorter timescales. However, this explanation is contradicted by studies similarly finding few crosslevel interactions in everyday life (e.g., social interactions: Kroencke et al, 2022;Sun et al, 2020; situation-state dynamics more generally: Kuper et al, 2022;Sherman et al, 2015;Wilt & Revelle, 2019).…”

“…Many of the associations are in line with the existing literature. For instance, previous work has similarly found positive between-person associations between well-being and exercise (Buecker et al, 2021;Kroencke et al, 2019;Wiese et al, 2018), social activities (e.g., Kroencke et al, 2022;Lucas et al, 2008;Sun et al, 2020), holidays (Nawijn & Veenhoven, 2011), and cultural activities (e.g., Schulz et al, 2018). Moreover, these findings are broadly in line with the suggestion that active leisure activities (e.g., exercise, social activities) are more positively linked to well-being than passive leisure activities (e.g., watching TV; see also Holder et al, 2009).…”

Who Benefits from Which Activity? On the Relations Between Personality Traits, Leisure Activities, and Well-Being

“…In addition to studies investigating different leisure activities simultaneously, large literatures exist about specific activities. For instance, more frequent social interactions have been associated with higher well-being (e.g., Lucas et al, 2008;Kroencke et al, 2022;Sun et al, 2020). Similarly, physical activity is positively associated with well-being between persons (e.g., Buecker et al, 2021;Kroencke et al, 2019;Wiese et al, 2018).…”

“…Other work has focused on specific leisure activities at the within person level. For instance, many studies indicate momentary well-being benefits of social interactions (e.g., Kroencke et al, 2022;Sun et al, 2020) and positive effects of social leisure on life satisfaction were also reported at larger timescales (e.g., Becchetti et al, 2012). Physical activity has been related to momentary (Liao et al, 2015), weekly (e.g., Kroencke et al, 2019), and biennial fluctuations in well-being (Perales et al, 2014), and similar effects were PERSONALITY, LEISURE ACTIVITIES, AND WELL-BEING evident in experimental designs (Buecker et al, 2021).…”

“…For instance, well-being benefits from social interactions show relatively few associations with personality traits (Kroencke et al, 2022;Lucas et al, 2008;Sun et al, 2020). Chan et al (2018) reported that the association between physical activity and well-being was stronger for participants high in Extraversion and Openness but unrelated to other Big Five traits.…”