Profs & Pints Baltimore: The Science of Making Friends
Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “The Science of Making Friends,” with Marisa G. Franco, assistant clinical professor of psychology at the University of Maryland’s Honors College and author of the New York Times best-seller Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make—and Keep—Friends.
[Doors open at 3. The talk starts at 4:30. The room is open seating.]
Friends matter. They’ve been shown to improve mental and physical health, with one study of very happy people finding that their most defining characteristic was being socially connected.
Yet friendship networks have been shrinking over the last few decades as people have coped with distraction, burnout, and chaos. It doesn’t help that we live in a society that often prizes romantic love at the expense of other relationships.
How do we make and keep friends? What’s the secret to finding “your people” in an ever-more-fragmented world?
Learn what science says about making friends in this interactive talk by Dr. Marisa Franco, a psychologist who has extensively researched human connection and systemic loneliness and whose book Platonic has been extensively lauded as a source of great practical advice.
You’re never too old to make new friendships or deepen longstanding ones. Along with giving you an understanding of the scientific study of friendship, this talk will teach you practical steps you can take to build better connections with others to be happier and more fulfilled. (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID.)
