You know that friend who treats being single like a limited-edition collaboration between her and the universe? New pottery class on Tuesday, salsa on Thursday, camping for the first time in her life this weekend. She might look chaotic on Instagram, but according to new research, her brain is quietly winning.

A team of social psychologists has just confirmed what your group chat has been suspecting: single people who treat this phase as a chance to try new things report better mental health than those who sit at home refreshing dating apps. It is less about having a partner on your arm, more about what you do with your own two hands.

What The New Research Really Says

The Big Idea: Self Expansion While Single

The study, published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, looks at something called self expansion – psychologist speak for growing your sense of self through new skills, perspectives, and experiences. Traditionally, that growth has been studied inside couples: travel together, learn together, become a shinier combined unit.

But about 40 percent of adults are single, and the researchers asked a simple question: what if singlehood itself is a growth engine? They focused on a mindset they call “singlehood self expansion potential” – basically, whether you believe this season without a partner is a chance to explore, experiment, and stretch who you are.

How The Study Worked

Across three pre registered studies, Elina Moreno and colleagues followed hundreds of single adults. In the first two, single university students filled out daily or weekly diaries for up to six weeks, reporting how satisfied they felt with life, how anxious they were about being single, and whether they had done anything novel or exciting.

Those who believed singlehood offered room to grow were more likely to actually do new things on a given day – from trying a new sport to going to a different kind of social event. On those exact days, they reported higher life satisfaction, stronger feelings of autonomy and competence, and less fear of staying single.

In a third study with 324 single adults, simply imagining future novel activities as a single person gave people a small immediate bump in mood compared to picturing the same old routine. As Moreno put it, “Seizing the opportunity to try new things can improve how you feel about being single and about your life in general,” Elina Moreno says.

Why Novel Activities Make Single People Feel Better

Meeting Your Brain’s Need For More

Underneath the cute term self expansion is something very practical: your brain likes challenge and variety. New activities feed three core psychological needs – feeling in charge of your own choices, feeling competent, and feeling connected.

When you sign up for that ceramics class, decide to run your first 5K, or finally learn to make fresh pasta, you tick at least two of those boxes. You chose it, you are getting better at something, and often you are doing it alongside other humans. That combination is strongly linked to better mental health not just for singles but across U.S. adults, where a greater variety of pleasant activities has been tied to fewer symptoms and even fewer mental health visits.

Mindset Matters As Much As The Activity

Here is the twist: in the diary studies, the emotional glow from any single new activity was mostly a same day affair. The longer lasting buffer against loneliness and panic scrolling came from the underlying belief that singlehood is a real chapter of life, not a waiting room.

Think of it as two levers. One is behavior – signing up, showing up, trying the thing. The other is narrative – deciding that these experiments actually count, even if you still want a relationship. The people who pulled both levers felt the best.

OK, But What Counts As “Trying Something New”?

Social Self Expansion

Forget the fantasy that growth while single has to be a solo Eat Pray Love pilgrimage. In the weekly study, about 83 percent of so called self expanding activities were done with someone else, usually friends or family. The most common choices were physical activities like exercise or sports, followed by social gatherings and big celebrations.

So yes, grabbing your work wife for a boxing class in matching athleisure absolutely counts. So does hosting a tiny cocktail night where everyone dresses like their favorite Succession character, or joining the queer hiking group you have been stalking on Instagram for months.

Solo Experiments

Not everyone has a ready made crew, and the research quietly respects that. Roughly 18 percent of self expanding moments were fully solo – think taking yourself to a new neighborhood, starting a language app streak, or finally braving the weights section alone.

The key is that it feels slightly out of your comfort zone. New coffee shop, new podcast genre, new way of moving your body – the bar is lower than you think.

How To Turn This Into A Weekly Ritual

Rewriting Your Single Story

Culturally, women in particular have been fed the idea that single equals failure, while men are told they are fine as lone wolves until further notice. Recent work on gender and singlehood is already poking holes in that storyline, showing many women feel more free and satisfied when they are not carrying a partner’s emotional and domestic load.

Try catching your own script. If it sounds like “Once I am in a relationship, then I will travel / move cities / learn Italian,” rewrite it as “While I am single, I am building the life that a future partner would be lucky to join.” That is singlehood self expansion potential in one sentence.

A Simple Plan You Can Actually Stick To

Think small and consistent. One new thing a week is plenty: a new place, a new skill, or a new person. That might mean a different running route, a beginner coding workshop, or a Meetup group instead of yet another Dead Sea scroll of dating profiles.

If you want to go full scientist, copy the diary studies. Keep a quick note in your phone: what you tried, how satisfied you felt with life on a scale from one to 10 before and after. Over a month, you will have your own data set quietly proving what the headline already hinted at – single people who try new things are happier, not because single is magically better than coupled, but because they have decided this season gets to be rich, too.