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A psychologist visited an Italian island to find out why so many people lived to 100 — and discovered something amazing

sardinia
Sardinia. Shutterstock

In the village of Ogliastra, a mountainous section of the ruggedly beautiful Italian island Sardinia, there are ten times as many 100-year-old men as there are in mainland Europe. 

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It's one of the few places in the world where women don't outlive men, on average.

Despite the hard labor of shepherding and farming that many Sardinian villagers do to make a living, they outlive Europeans and North Americans by 20 or 30 years — all while working into their 90s.  

Giuseppe 2
Giuseppe, one of the centenarians Pinker met in Sardinia. Susan Pinker

When psychologist Susan Pinker visited to learn more about why Sardinian men live so long, she discovered that she couldn't get these guys alone for a one-on-one interview. A grandniece would stop by to drop off vegetables. The barkeep would come by and say hey.

As Pinker details in "The Village Effect: How Face-to-Face Contact Can Make Us Healthier, Happier, and Smarter," those relationships weren't just a happy bonus to having a long life.

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While it's hard to say that it's solely relationships that help people to live so long in Sardinia — and not a combination of less stress, family caregiving, genetics, or something that we're not even aware of — Pinker says that that human connections are a driving factor in longevity.

That's because social contact has a biological effect on us, just like food, water, sleep, or sex. 

"If you play cards or have coffee with friends once a week, that will give you a 10 to 15 year survival advantage compared with someone who sits in front of a screen all day," Pinker tells Tech Insider. 

Her research goes against one of the core ideas at the center of American culture: individualism, that deeply held ideal that independence and self reliance are the ingredients of a well-lived life. 

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According to Pinker and the bevy of social neuroscientists that her book and CBC radio documentary discuss, your health is more interdependent than independent

The research is pretty mindblowing: 

• A 2008 study of memory loss in 16,000 elderly Americans found that people who were socially isolated had twice the cognitive decline of people who had ties with their family, friends, and community.

• A 2010 meta-analysis of 148 studies (for a total of over 300,000 participants) found that people with close ties with family, friends, or colleagues have a 50% less likelihood of dying over a given period.

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That's why, Pinker says, we should carve out the time for face-to-face social interactions. As MIT sociologist Sherry Turkle recently told us, you won't be nourished by the "fast food" of texting as much as you will be by the "farm-to-table" of actually hanging out in person.

She says that people don't adequately value the relationships they have with their colleagues or shopkeepers because they don't recognize how essential they are.

Like the acknowledged life lengtheners of eating well, not drinking too much booze, and not sunburning your way to skin cancer, having a squad you can rely on will help your individual health.

"Social activities have a profound effect on preserving your happiness and your memories," Pinker says. "We consider it intangible because it doesn't bring us any money, it doesn't improve our social status, but it has a concrete effect on our health — if you have a stroke, you're better protected by your relationships than by medication." 

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