Saying hello to neighbors could boost your well-being, a new survey says

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN

(CNN) — It’s hard to be neighborly when you’re raising two kids as a single mom and working long hours. That’s where my sheltie, Dancer, came to my rescue. My sweet boy’s cuteness (of which he was well aware) prompted many people to stop and chat with us on our walks in my Atlanta neighborhood.

Little did I know that saying hello to people who live near me would be a key to boosting my well-being after my husband died — but that’s the conclusion of a new Gallup survey released Tuesday. The poll found adults who regularly say hello to multiple people in their neighborhood have higher well-being than those who speak to few or no neighbors.

Numbers mattered: With 100 being a perfect score, well-being rose from 51.5 among people saying howdy to no neighbors to over 64 for people who regularly greeted six neighbors.

“The sweet spot as far as well-being is concerned, is six greetings,” said Dan Witters, research director for the Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index, a large, national poll on career, finance, social, physical and community well-being conducted quarterly in the United States since 2008.

“After six, there aren’t any greater benefits from greeting your neighbors beyond that,” Witters said. “But six is better than five, five is better than four, all the way down to zero.”

What defined a greeting? A grunt, a nod, a wave, a fist bump, a pat on the back or just a polite hello? Do you have to stop and chat, too?

“We don’t require that you know the person well, stop and chat, or even that you know their name,” Witters said, adding that “presumably, the more people to whom you say hello, the greater the probability is that you’re actually going to strike up a conversation with them as opposed to just wave.”

And how often is regularly? Every day, every other day, once a week?

“We leave that up to the respondent to interpret, but our intent was for this to mean all the people to whom you greet whenever you see them,” Witters said. “Some days might be zero, some days might be every one of them.”

More than just a social benefit

Saying hello boosted much more than a person’s social success, according to an analysis of the survey data. Regular greetings also improved a person’s physical, financial, career and community health.

Community well-being was defined as feeling safe, having an emotional attachment, and giving back to a neighborhood, Witters said. “If you have very strong community well-being, that’s going to increase the chances that you’ll say hello to neighbors and saying hello to neighbors is going to improve your community well-being.”

Career well-being measured a person’s sense of satisfaction, which Witters explained included whether someone was a good fit and utilizing their strengths. When it came to physical well-being, you didn’t need to be a gym rat; Gallup defined it as “having the energy you need to get things done in your life.”

“I think being neighborly is absolutely going to increase the probabilities that you’re going to be out and about in your neighborhood and moving your body,” Witters said.

Financial well-being is defined in the Gallup survey as not how much money you make, but having responsible spending habits and building toward financial security, Witters added.

“It’s probably fair to postulate that the rise in financial well-being due to greeting neighbors is because people with greater levels of financial well-being are more likely to be living in a safer area where they are more comfortable being out and about.”

The new survey also compared number of greetings with how well a person was “thriving,” as defined in Gallup’s overall Life Evaluation Index. To measure thriving, Gallup uses the Cantril Self-Anchoring Scale, which asks people to imagine themselves on a ladder of achievement, with 10 being their best possible life and zero their worst possible life, both now and five years in the future.

“People who rank themselves at 7 or higher in their present lives, and 8 or more for their future lives are considered to be thriving,” Witters said.

The chance of being considered thriving was only 38.1% for people who didn’t say hello, rising to a 60.5% chance among those who greet five neighbors, the survey found.

Who says hi more often?

Most Americans say hi to an average of five neighbors regularly, with 27% reporting greeting six or more people in their neighborhood, the survey found. However, this varied a good deal by age. Adults younger than age 30 greeted an average of 2.9 neighbors, with only 14% greeting six or more on a regular basis.

“That’s likely associated with financial well-being and urban density — young people are much more likely to live in the inner cities in a high-rise apartment or condo,” Witters said. “Oftentimes you don’t even know who your neighbors are, let alone saying hi to one.”

The tendency of younger generations to be on smartphones may play a role as well, he said: “People aren’t looking up saying hello, they’re just looking down at their device. I am very open to the possibility that that is a factor.”

In comparison, 41% of adults 65 and older typically spoke to an average of 6.5 neighbors or more, the survey found.

“Greetings go up pretty steadily with age,” Witters said. “Older Americans are more likely to relocate upon retirement to a medium- or small-size town or even a rural area where opportunities to get to know neighbors would be greater.”

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