Having close relationships is important to our well-being, helping us to be healthier and more resilient. According to the research, even superficial encounters with people in our everyday lives can make us happier and bring a sense of belonging within a community. If that’s the case, then why would we avoid social contact? A new paper published in Emotion aimed to find out. Researchers studied the everyday lives of 88 college students making use of a cell phone app called StudentLife. The app gathered information about activity in real time without the participants needing to input data themselves. Over one month, the app recorded the number of face-to-face conversations the students had each day and how long those conversations lasted, providing an overall social contact score. It also measured sleep patterns, activity levels, and time spent at home—all things that could, potentially, affect social contact. At random times each day, …