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Comparing the Happiness Effects of Real and On-Line Friends

Overview of attention for article published in PLOS ONE, September 2013
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (99th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
23 news outlets
blogs
4 blogs
twitter
98 X users
facebook
2 Facebook pages
googleplus
1 Google+ user
reddit
1 Redditor

Citations

dimensions_citation
65 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
134 Mendeley
citeulike
1 CiteULike
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Title
Comparing the Happiness Effects of Real and On-Line Friends
Published in
PLOS ONE, September 2013
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0072754
Pubmed ID
Authors

John F. Helliwell, Haifang Huang

Abstract

A recent large Canadian survey permits us to compare face-to-face ('real-life') and on-line social networks as sources of subjective well-being. The sample of 5,000 is drawn randomly from an on-line pool of respondents, a group well placed to have and value on-line friendships. We find three key results. First, the number of real-life friends is positively correlated with subjective well-being (SWB) even after controlling for income, demographic variables and personality differences. Doubling the number of friends in real life has an equivalent effect on well-being as a 50% increase in income. Second, the size of online networks is largely uncorrelated with subjective well-being. Third, we find that real-life friends are much more important for people who are single, divorced, separated or widowed than they are for people who are married or living with a partner. Findings from large international surveys (the European Social Surveys 2002-2008) are used to confirm the importance of real-life social networks to SWB; they also indicate a significantly smaller value of social networks to married or partnered couples.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 98 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 134 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Canada 2 1%
United States 2 1%
United Kingdom 1 <1%
China 1 <1%
Portugal 1 <1%
Unknown 127 95%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Bachelor 21 16%
Student > Master 19 14%
Researcher 12 9%
Student > Ph. D. Student 12 9%
Student > Doctoral Student 11 8%
Other 26 19%
Unknown 33 25%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Psychology 36 27%
Social Sciences 13 10%
Economics, Econometrics and Finance 13 10%
Business, Management and Accounting 5 4%
Medicine and Dentistry 5 4%
Other 21 16%
Unknown 41 31%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 291. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 08 May 2024.
All research outputs
#124,680
of 25,984,008 outputs
Outputs from PLOS ONE
#1,935
of 226,897 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#754
of 210,290 outputs
Outputs of similar age from PLOS ONE
#41
of 5,083 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,984,008 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 226,897 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 15.9. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 210,290 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 5,083 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.