Want to Live Longer, Healthier, and Happier? Then Cultivate Your Social Connections

Social scientist Kasley Killam has always been fascinated by the science of human connection. In college, for instance, she once decided to conduct a personal experiment and perform an act of kindness everyday for 108 days. At the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, she researched solutions for loneliness. At Google’s health spinoff, Verily, her job was to bring people together to promote social health. “I first came across the term ‘social health’ during my research at Stanford, where I was developing an app around human connection,” Killam says. “Since then all my work has been through the lens of connection.” Ahead of her keynote speech at WIRED Health later this month, Killam explains why social health has been the missing factor in human health. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. WIRED: Traditionally, human health has been divided into a physical and a mental component. But you make the case that a third pillar—social health—needs to be introduced. Why ... Read full article.