Friendship Lab

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The Need

One-in-five of us have no close friends, creating a wellbeing crisis.

The research is startling: people with close friendships have lower levels of anxiety and depression, increased levels of meaning and happiness, decreased risks of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and heart attack, and around seven years longer lifespans. All those coffee dates, weekend hikes and late-night chats help us face our adversities, discover who we are, and choose our best paths in life.

And yet many of us have no close friends.

Our Mission

Friendship Lab empowers men and women with the wisdom and skills to make their friendships thrive.

We do this through evidence-based courses, inspiring podcast and media campaigns, research projects, arts and education collaborations and more, to help us all enjoy the wellbeing benefits friendship brings and see loneliness reduced in society.

Our Vision

We envision a day when every person has at least three ‘2am friends’:

• Someone we can talk to, depend on, grow with, and enjoy
• Someone we can call at 2am when everything has gone wrong