The Next Big Idea Daily How to Make Friends and Keep Them
8 snips
Sep 12, 2025 
Marisa Franco, a psychologist and professor at the University of Maryland, dives into the challenges of maintaining friendships as adults. She shares actionable strategies to overcome the fear of rejection and the importance of initiating connections. Highlighting the 'liking gap' phenomenon, Franco encourages listeners to assume likability in others. She also discusses how repeated interactions can strengthen bonds, emphasizing inclusivity and the value of making friends at any stage of life for better well-being.
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Friendships Don’t Form Automatically As Adults
- Adult friendships rarely form without effort because we no longer have continuous unplanned interaction like in childhood.
- Expect to initiate contact and create opportunities rather than waiting for friendships to happen organically.
Ask To Exchange Info After Good Interactions
- Tell people you want to stay connected and exchange contact information after pleasant interactions.
- Treat friendship as effortful: people who view friendship as requiring work feel less lonely later on.
Rejection Fears Are Bigger In Your Head
- We overestimate how much others will reject us because of the brain's negativity bias and the liking gap research.
- People typically like us more than we think, so fear of rejection often distorts reality.
