For those of you who, like me, often have an agonizing internal debate whether to go to your friend’s rager on Saturday night or stay in and study for Monday’s midterm, I just want to share this: A study released last week shows that increased social interaction makes you smarter.
This is likely not one of the pressing social debates the researchers at Oxford University had in mind when conducting their study, but it’s the beauty of research : it can apply to everyone – literally. Macaques, those monkeys that look like miniature baboons, were the subject of their experiments. After being divided into various social group sizes – some were housed alone, with a single companion, or with larger groups – the monkeys’ brains were examined with MRI scans. Lo and behold, those who lived in larger group settings had bigger brains than the rest.
When I first read this study, I was reminded of my freshman and part of sophomore years in Bobb-McCulloch, the one place on campus where having too much social interaction can actually be an issue. Realizing this, I moved to Plex mid-sophomore year. I went from being barely above the 3.0 mark to the Dean’s List in the same quarter I made the transition. While I believe in the legitimacy of the Oxford study, I think an important factor to keep in mind is that it still takes self-initiative to put one’s possibly enlarged brain to good use. I picked up new perspectives through my interactions in Bobb, but I also needed the right personal mindset and environment in which to display my newfound knowledge.
The temporal cortex and the pre-frontal cortex, which process social stimuli and influence decision-making, respectively, were clearly larger. Ever wonder how those royals always seem to know what to do even at the most awkward functions? It’s because they probably met more people through their extended royal family lines in their first year of life than most commoners do in their first ten.
Gossip pages sometimes cluck-cluck at Katie Holmes’s tendency to include her daughter Suri in numerous (photographed) events, but she needn’t worry since Suri will most likely end up with bigger brains than most of us, thanks to her huge social setting of Hollywood stars and paparazzi. And while Kim Jong-Il’s less than intelligent decisions often baffle the free world, it now makes sense given that North Korea is the most anti-social nation on the global scene.
It isn’t just the amount of physical social interactions that correlate with brain size, however. Researchers at University College London (the pub-loving British are well-suited to study socialization) found, through MRI scans, people with more Facebook friends had greater gray matter density than those with fewer. And, they found that some parts of the brain were bigger regardless of the number of friends in real life Whoever said Facebook is a waste of time should get their brain checked.
The point of this column is not to encourage students to forgo studying for partying or to friend everyone they pass on the street on Facebook. Rather, it’s to call to attention the importance of a well-rounded life experience beyond academics (not to sound like a college counselor).
In my first year here, I was not involved with any student groups, believing Northwestern’s rigorous courses demanded my full attention without extra-curricular distractions, with the exception of evening plans. However, I found that my genuine interest in my course subjects improved once I started joining clubs and organizations, and my network of friends and acquaintances expanded, despite having to give up social events due to the extra work.
While there is much knowledge to be had in books and scientific theories, we should also not underestimate the value of personal interactions, be they online or face-to-face, in enhancing our understanding of the world.
Yoonj Kim is a Medill junior. She can be reached at [email protected]
