Why humans SOCIALIZE

I was sitting at a cafe, wondering why people need a social life or interaction with another living being.

The first thing that came to my mind was: “Why can’t humans be alone?” Based on what I know so far, it’s because when you’re alone and doing nothing, your brain has nothing to do except think and most of the time, unnecessary thoughts come up. So you try to do an activity to fill that gap. One of them is social interaction.

I think humans depend on other living beings (not just humans). Even a dog can fill that gap. The presence of a living being is enough. For example, a flatmate you might not speak to for days still makes a huge difference compared to being the only person in the flat, where everything else is non-living.

From what I’ve observed, when you interact with someone you feel good and safe. You feel valued.

But I’m still not able to figure out why this happens to us. Maybe it’s something to do with the brain.

Then I asked a few more questions: Is it something that was built into our brains? Or was it related to ‘natural selection,’ which I read about recently?

I didn’t have any answers, so I turned to ChatGPT.

I asked “Is socializing with other beings related to natural selection?”

And guess what, I was right.

Natural Selection means traits that improve survival and reproduction become common over generations.
Early humans who were more social (cooperating, sharing, protecting each other) survived better.
Less social individuals had lower survival chances.
Over generations, traits like communication, empathy, and cooperation became stronger.
Humans evolved to enjoy and depend on social interaction.

Then I asked a follow-up question: “So can we say that, in the beginning, there was no default trait of socializing?”

Short answer: yes—with an important nuance.

Early life did not start with a built-in “socializing” trait like humans have today. But it also wasn’t completely “non-social” in the way we imagine.

Even then, organisms had simple interactions (competition + basic cooperation). Through Natural Selection, cooperation became useful → helped survival. As brains evolved, animals developed true social behavior (memory, emotions, bonding). Humans took it further with language, culture, and deep relationships, making socializing a core part of who we are.

I got the answer I was looking for.