Problem
You wouldn’t mind a little self-esteem boost.
Solution
Join some clubs. According to a study in PLOS One, people who are members of more clubs have more self esteem—although maybe not for the reason you’d expect.
Method
Researchers interviewed hundreds of people, including elementary aged schoolchildren, retirees, and former homeless people. Participants were asked about the number of groups they were members of, number of friends they had, what the groups meant to them, and how they felt about themselves.
Results
People who were members of more groups tended to have higher self-esteem. You might think that people who were members of more groups had more friends, but that wasn’t the case—everyone had pretty comparable numbers of friends.
What is important, it turns out, is how a given club makes someone feel about their sense of self. A vegetarian supper club or a veterans club, for instance, improves peoples self esteem because it confirms a part of their identity.
The Takeaway
Join a club, so long as it means something to you. And if there’s drinking at the club, hey, bonus!
Flickr.
