The Science Behind Why It's A Sh*t-Ton More Fun To Do Things Alone

In a society that is very extrovert-friendly, most of us live by "the more, the merrier" phrase. We miss movies before we can see them in theater because we couldn't find someone to go with us. We eat more TV dinners at home instead of going out to our favorite restaurant because our friends aren't free.

But are we limiting our happiness by waiting for someone to enjoy things with? Science says yes!

A study published in Journal of Consumer Research found that many people don't want to do enjoyable things on their own because they think it won't be fun. But once they had test subjects actually do things like visit a gallery by themselves, they had more fun than they predicted.

So if that's true, why are we so against rolling solo? Well, we certainly care too much about what others think.

Researchers found that people are afraid of others thinking they don't have any friends. They also found that people predict they will get harsher judgments toward themselves, rather than how they judge others when they're out alone. People think others will label them as antisocial, weird, and strange for being out without any friends!

Ugh, this sounds just like high school. I guess we never outgrow the fear of being a loner.