Tend and Befriend is a concept put forward by Shelley Taylor, Ph.D., a psychology professor who challenged the accepted notion that our only natural responses to stress were limited to Fight or Flight. Dr. Taylor and her colleagues argued that under duress, women reached out to their young and/or their peers for care (i.e. “tend and befriend”). That connection actually LOWERED STRESS.

This is a science-y way of saying, “humans need each other,” which is my favorite kind of science.

As a...