Sorry nerds, Frat Bros have more fulfilling lives

[downtown]

From the "this totally flies against stereotype" department.

The polling firm interviewed tens of thousands of college graduates about their well-being after college. They found a few steps students can take in college that predict whether they will be thriving financially, socially, and in the workplace after they graduate. Put simply: "Find professors who excite you and make you care. Get very involved in an activity. Find a mentor. Get an internship. Work on a long-term project."

Students who were in fraternities and sororities were more likely to do all five — and more likely to say they had a sense of purpose at work, that they had strong connections to friends and family, and that they like where they live, Gallup said this week.

The link to the Gallup study is here. The link to the Vox article, complete with CHARTS, is here:

Also important:

It's not clear if students fared well because they were in a fraternity and sorority, or for other reasons. The results held even when controlling for socioeconomic background, race, and gender, and researchers previously found that the type of college (public or private, selective or not) didn't matter very much to graduates' future happiness.

What do you think? For what's it is worth, I was in a frat, and treasured my experiences from that part of college. Connections gained from my frat also helped advance me professionally, and academically. I learned more leadership and interpersonal relationship skills (which I use every day) in that environment than I did in the classroom...but since my frat wasn't part of the greek system, so I understand my experience may have been atypical (it also didn't have any of the gross anti-women stuff that is common with the US greek system)

Does this surprise you? Do you think there is some merit in the greek system, or could any benefits be explained by other factors? Is Gallup full of crap? WHO NEEDS FULFILLMENT AMIRITE BROS?

 

[Kyriakos]

Are those frat bros in the Φ-Λ-Φ brotherhood?

(FulLFilling) :\

 

[salty mud]

I honestly think the US education system is getting more and more decadent.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Well making fraternity membership the dividing line more or less puts all the socially inept / relatively isolated in the other basket. That alone should mean that statistically fraternities make you more happy.

 

[Rashiminos]

Social interaction is valuable for enriching people's lives.

 

[Formaldehyde]

People who join frats are typically a bit more social than those who don't? That this can help lead to being more social and successful in the future?

Now there is a revelation.

 

[Farm Boy]

I have it on reasonably good authority that when 8 dorm rats get custom tailored shirts with Gamma Delta Iota on the front some groups of greeks(not the nationals Kyr!) will get bent out of shape about it.

 

[Kyriakos]

I don't think we have uni frats here. I know there weren't any in my uni in England (but maybe some other english universities have them). FWIW we had 'clubs' in Essex, and i tried to join two, but decided to just not in the end. I recall an original red-bearded hipster in the 'philosophy club'.

 

[Harv]

Does this surprise you? Do you think there is some merit in the greek system, or could any benefits be explained by other factors? Is Gallup full of crap? WHO NEEDS FULFILLMENT AMIRITE BROS?

It looks like were measuring general well being based on career, (sense of purpose at work) social, physical, financial, community. Me?

Geek or Greek: I am a Geek, not a Greek.
Career: Doing well.
Social: Epicfail.
Physical: Doing very well.
Financial: Doing very well.
Community: Doing okay.

 

[salty mud]

I don't think we have uni frats here. I know there weren't any in my uni in England (but maybe some other english universities have them). FWIW we had 'clubs' in Essex, and i tried to join two, but decided to just not in the end. I recall an original red-bearded hipster in the 'philosophy club'.

I have never heard of them existing over here.

 

[illram]

Isn't there a wide spectrum of frats? Not all of them are crazy hard partying misogynistic dens of debauchery.

I'd say any fulfilling and supportive social network greatly aids future success and happiness. On some campuses, it is more difficult to find that outside a frat. On others, frats are almost irrelevant and you have to do it the old fashioned way.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

People who join frats are typically a bit more social than those who don't? That this can help lead to being more social and successful in the future?

Now there is a revelation.

Probably would see the same pattern with clubs and other types of organizations. Now frats vs those organizations would be an interesting comparison.

 

[warpus]

This is an incredibly basic hypothesis:

A. Humans are social creatures and require social interaction (of varying degrees) to be happy
B. Fraternities are places where lots of social interaction occurs

Thus C., humans who attend fraternities tend to be happier and better adjusted.

The networking and socialization and "all that" that takes place at fraternities, leads to better opportunities, more drinking with buddies, more sex.. generally more stuff that makes humans happier.

So people end up happier? Yep, that works for me. Case closed.

 

[Narz]

Well making fraternity membership the dividing line more or less puts all the socially inept / relatively isolated in the other basket. That alone should mean that statistically fraternities make you more happy.

Yes, this is the explanation.

It's well known having community is good for one's mental/emotional/physical (and probably financial) health. Same reason churchgoers live longer despite religion being a bunch of silliness.

 

[cybrxkhan]

The conclusions don't come as much surprise to me - you're more social, you have connections, you have things to distract you, you're probably gonna be happier. I'd wager this applies to organizations and clubs in general. Comparing my various high school friends and how they ended up in college, the happier ones (relatively speaking) were those that were more social, and, thus, generally, were part of some sort of organization, whether this was a frat, a business group, or an anime club.

Probably would see the same pattern with clubs and other types of organizations. Now frats vs those organizations would be an interesting comparison.

I would like to see that. And even seeing the differences between different types of fraternities - i.e. the more academic ones, vs. the stereotypical alcohol-sex-orgy-party ones, and so on. Or, another matter, at some schools like mine frats and sororities aren't as big a deal (that's not to say they're irrelevant, per se), so organizations in general play a more important role - would there be a difference in these sort of schools, vs. schools with a stronger frat/sorority tradition? My school for instance is known to be very high in terms of social... awesomeness (can't think of the right word at the moment), but people tend to say its frats and parties suck compared to that of other schools, relatively speaking.

 

[Jawz II]

You know who has more fulfilling lives than them? barnyard animals.

 

[Labtec600]

I am assuming this is social fraternities?

As someone posted, they tend to get parties/drinking/sex...all things that can make you happy and in turn give you more drive.

I was in one for a year. I found it wasn't my thing and quit...but I wouldn't take it back. I can't tell you if it made me better off because I can't compare it to me if I didnt do it.

 

[BvBPL]

This shouldn't be a surprise at all. It is call fraternity for a reason. Man needs friends.

 

[downtown]

Isn't there a wide spectrum of frats? Not all of them are crazy hard partying misogynistic dens of debauchery.

I'd say any fulfilling and supportive social network greatly aids future success and happiness. On some campuses, it is more difficult to find that outside a frat. On others, frats are almost irrelevant and you have to do it the old fashioned way.

Yeah. As far as I know, this wasn't limited to just frats in the Greek system. There are social frats, frats centered around certain academic disciplines, service frats, etc. While my frat shared much in common with typical Greek organizations (we had letters, we had a pledge drive, we had a secret society, we drank and partied), we were also co-ed, and membership in the organization was based in large part around community service. Your experiences will vary.

Also, certainly, the "importance" of frats varies from campus to campus. The study didn't show differences from public or private schools, or in certain geographies, or in the academic rigor of the school, but perhaps there are other variables missed.

Probably would see the same pattern with clubs and other types of organizations. Now frats vs those organizations would be an interesting comparison.

Yeah, that could be interesting too.

I see the "well, this should be self evidence, since all those people are social" argument, and I think there is a lot of truth to it, but I'm not 100% sure that explains all of it. What makes a particularly social person more likely to work on an academic project that takes more than a semester? What makes them more likely to get internships? What makes them care about specific professors?

It explains community engagement, but I think there may be a little more here.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

I see the "well, this should be self evidence, since all those people are social" argument, and I think there is a lot of truth to it, but I'm not 100% sure that explains all of it. What makes a particularly social person more likely to work on an academic project that takes more than a semester? What makes them more likely to get internships? What makes them care about specific professors?

This is why designing your study is very important, in order to reach interesting conclusions.

As a side note, I hate graphs that don't show a measure of variance. Is 34% vs 36% a significant difference or is it statistical noise? Random samples aren't the same as the population.