Human beings are, by nature, social animals. This observation has been recorded time and time again throughout history by great minds such as Aristotle. We constantly find ourselves thrust into situations where we are forced to collaborate in order to succeed. Can forging and maintaining a friendship help to make our endeavors more prosperous and our efforts more efficient? Is there a way that this can be tested? Does friendship inherently make us better people? If so, it could possibly suggest a natural necessity towards forming alliances with others. If a strong bond fosters a stronger individual, then is would be natural to assume that said bonds are naturally sought out by individuals.

Where do we start? Well, for one, it would make sense to accumulate a large sample of individuals, some with prior friendships, and others with no acquaintance whatsoever. The experiment would focus upon the performance of an array of tasks where efficiency in said task can be succinctly measured. Groups of friends would execute these tasks, and groups of strangers would execute them as well. The results, with any luck, would offer answers as to the question posed: Do friendships make us stronger?

PLOS ONE recently released a report of an experiment undertaken by various scientists in order to elucidate this very issue. Partner visibility, and relationship were both variables used in order to test the efficiency of human interaction. The study purportedly found a very positive correlation between the performance of a group of individuals and their level of prior involvement. This threshold of efficiency, furthermore, saw a further increase when partner visibility was increased.

So what does this all mean. Do friends lead us to having more efficient interactions? Do efficient interactions lead us to friends? Is this a universal constant. I believe that there is still room for a healthy amount of skepticism. After all, titles alone are more than often not enough to provide any sort of assurance of quality. What makes a marriage happy? The fact that the marriage exists? Or do happy people make happy marriages? Do friends merely decide their relationship based upon a problem to be overcome, or are friendships formed out of commonality? Humans and the relationships between them are often extremely subjective and I wager that you would be hard pressed to find an exact replica of any one relationship between any set of individuals.

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0143469