Editorial process
This page documents how every guide on How to Make Friends Hub gets made — from research to publication — including how AI assistance is used and where human judgment takes over. The intent is transparency: you should be able to follow any claim on the site back to a verifiable source.
Research sources
The substantive claims on this site are drawn from a short list of well-cited researchers and institutions in the social sciences:
- Robin Dunbar (University of Oxford) — friendship circle sizes, cognitive limits on social networks.
- Julianne Holt-Lunstad (Brigham Young University) — meta-analyses on loneliness and physical health outcomes.
- Jeffrey Hall (University of Kansas) — hours-to-friendship research, communication studies.
- Erica Boothby, Gus Cooney, and colleagues — research on the “liking gap” in adult conversations.
- American Perspectives Survey, Pew Research Center, and the U.S. Surgeon General's Advisory on Loneliness — large-N survey data on friendship trends.
- YouTube interviews and talks from the above researchers — used to surface how they explain their own findings in their own words.
Every page links to the specific studies it draws from so you can read the original work. If a citation appears to be wrong, please email us and it will be corrected.
How AI is used
Like a lot of writers in 2026, I use AI tools as a research assistant and drafting partner. Here is exactly what that means on this site:
- Research synthesis — AI helps me pull together findings from multiple papers and explain them in plain language. I then verify the key claims against the original sources.
- Draft scaffolding — AI helps me outline articles and produce first drafts of sections. Those drafts are not what you read.
- Editing and rewriting — every paragraph that goes live has been read, edited, and where needed rewritten by me. I add the specific anecdotes, the small details, the opinions, the corrections.
- What AI does NOT do — invent facts, invent stories, fabricate citations, write pages unedited, or publish on its own. Every page that goes live has my name on it because I take responsibility for it.
This policy is in line with current guidance from Google and from the broader content industry: AI-assisted content is fine when humans take editorial responsibility; AI content published without human editing is not.
Anonymized stories
The personal anecdotes throughout the site (“a friend of mine, I'll call her L…”) are drawn from real conversations with real friends about adult friendship. Names and identifying details have been changed to protect privacy. The patterns and emotional truth are real even when the names are not. I never invent people or stories from nothing.
When pages get updated
Guides are reviewed at least once a year. When research updates change the picture — for instance, if a new replication study revises a finding I cited — I update the page and mark it with a new “Last updated” date. Major rewrites get a short changelog note at the bottom. Minor edits (a typo, a clarified sentence) don't.
Health and safety disclaimer
This site discusses loneliness and social connection, which are adjacent to mental health. It is not a medical or mental-health resource. I am not a licensed therapist, psychologist, or physician. If your loneliness is persistent or interfering with daily life, please consult a licensed mental-health professional. In the U.S., the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (call or text 988) provides free, confidential support 24/7.
Conflicts of interest
Right now, the site is monetized only by Google AdSense (advertising shown next to content). The site does not currently take payment for product placements, sponsored content, or affiliate links. If that changes in the future, every affected page will carry a clear disclosure at the top, and you can read the current monetization policy on the about page.
Last updated: May 23, 2026. Questions about how a piece was researched? Email sukielovesupport@gmail.com.