Adelphi professor highlights how outer-circle relationships can enhance individual wellbeing and public health.
Have you ever found yourself interacting with someone who isn’t quite a “friend,” but closer than a “colleague” and more present than an “acquaintance”? It’s not easy to categorize these relationships, even when they provide a sense of consistency and connection in our everyday lives.
Katherine L. Fiori, PhD, professor and associate dean for foundational psychology and faculty involvement in the Gordon F. Derner School of Psychology, has coined a new word for them: “fringeships.” Fringeships are a type of weak tie—a social science term for the “outer circle” of relationships in our lives—characterized by regular contact, shared camaraderie and limited obligation. As the so-called American loneliness epidemic escalates, Dr. Fiori believes fringeships can play a surprisingly vital role in improving our well-being.
According to Dr. Fiori’s new co-authored paper, “More than an Acquaintance less than a friend: Fringeships in Everyday Life” (Review of General Psychology, July 2025), fringeships stand out from other weak ties. “Fringeships make settings special,” the paper notes. “You may not always want to trudge to the exercise class, you may not be in the mood to discuss the boring book one of the members recommended for your monthly book club, and work (sometimes or always) is not a preferred activity. But when a fringeship has formed and there is mutual acknowledgment and communication, the whole experience feels more enjoyable.”
Since the 1970s, research has illustrated the advantages of weak ties in social networks. Weak ties can create stability, opportunities for engagement in diverse activities and access to otherwise unreachable information. But, as Dr. Fiori explained, “The focus of most social relations research has understandably been on close ties, such as good friends and family, since those offer us our strongest supports.”
When the Review of General Psychology issued a special call for the “next big idea” in psychology, Dr. Fiori and her colleagues wrote “More than an Acquaintance” in response. The article represents years of collaboration among the “big names” in weak tie research. “As researchers, we had talked for a while about what the field was lacking,” Dr. Fiori said, “and we really felt that the importance as well as the range of weak ties weren’t being represented.” She and her co-authors indexed a variety of weak ties (passing strangers, consequential strangers, familiars, Kevin Bacon ties and social media/online “friends”) before ultimately focusing on fringeships, the relationship they believe can offer up the greatest benefit.
Although fringeships lack the deep emotional commitment of close ties, they still make more of an impact than the strangers who flow through our day-to-day, or even the people we occasionally see at a mutual friend’s party. A fringeship can be the pottery class tablemate who commiserates about limited kiln space, the parent at the playground who also religiously watches The Bachelor, the colleague we eat lunch with but never see outside of work. Fringeships help us feel like we belong—and want to keep belonging—somewhere.
All relationships cost time and energy. Generally, close ties will require more time, and weak ties will require more energy, such as the need to present a socially acceptable version of ourselves to service professionals or co-workers. Fringeships, however, occupy a middle ground as low-cost, high-reward relationships. Social scientists have shown that weak ties can be a powerful antidote to loneliness, but the consistency, predictability and “in-group” sense of fringeships make them particularly beneficial to socially isolated people.
Barriers to fringeship do exist: natural introversion, a broad decline in “third spaces” and a fast-growing use of AI chatbots among lonely people. “Technology can certainly aid in connecting with people we already know or meeting new people online,” Dr. Fiori said, though she notes that AI-based supports cannot yield the same emotional benefits as either close or weak ties. “The basis of any relationship is mutual recognition, and if one of the ‘people’ is not real, there is no recognition. There is no relationship.”
Dr. Fiori and her colleagues believe that increasing access to fringeship opportunities can be revolutionary for public health interventions. “Fringeships don’t require as much time and energy from people already experiencing the negative consequences of loneliness,” she said. The spaces where fringeships grow can take many forms. Clinicians, social workers, community organizers and ordinary people can foster “drop- in” social spaces, informal communities like running clubs or trivia nights, or culturally specific activities like calligraphy groups or folk dance classes.
In today’s fast-paced, high-pressure world, relationships that make minimal demands on our time, energy and resources—and evolve naturally from things we do every day—are more likely to last. That’s why fringeships may very well be, as Dr. Fiori’s paper remarks, “the ‘sweet spot’ in the fight against loneliness.”
Frequently Asked Questions
A fringeship is a relationship that is closer than an acquaintance but less intimate than a friendship. Fringeships involve regular contact, shared camaraderie and limited obligation. Examples include a gym-class regular, a member of a book club or a coworker you have lunch with but never see outside work.
Katherine L. Fiori, PhD, professor in the Gordon F. Derner School of Psychology, and her co-authors coined the term “fringeship” when introducing the idea in “More than an Acquaintance less than a Friend: Fringeships in Everyday Life,” published in Review of General Psychology in July 2025.
“Weak ties” is the social-science term for the outer circle of our relationships. In contrast to weak ties such as passing strangers, fringeships involve consistent contact and mutual acknowledgment. They give people a sense of belonging and an “in-group” feeling without the emotional demands of a close friendship.
Fringeships are low-cost, high-reward relationships. They require less time than close ties and less social effort than many other weak ties. Because they are consistent and predictable, they can especially help people who are socially isolated.
No. AI-based supports can’t provide the same emotional benefits as close or weak ties, Dr. Fiori says: “The basis of any relationship is mutual recognition, and if one of the ‘people’ is not real, there is no recognition. There is no relationship.”
Fringeships grow out of recurring shared activities. Good places to find them include drop-in social spaces like running clubs, trivia nights, exercise or pottery classes, and culturally specific groups like calligraphy circles or folk dance classes. The key is showing up regularly so that mutual recognition can develop over time.
Dr. Fiori and her colleagues believe that more access to fringeship opportunities could transform loneliness interventions. Clinicians, social workers and community organizers can help by creating spaces where these connections can form.