Loneliness , like a bad cold, can spread in human groups, a new joint study from the universities of Chicago, California and Harvard reveals.
Using data from a large-scale analysis with more than 5,000 subjects, a team of researchers has shown that lonely people tend to share their sense of loneliness with those closest to them (friends and neighbors), who tend to isolate themselves as well. Those people end up feeling "alone in the crowd" and, over time, groups of lonely and disconnected individuals drift to the fringes of social media. "In the periphery, people have fewer friends , so their loneliness ends up making them lose the few bonds they had," explains John Cacioppo, co-author of the study.
In addition, research reveals that women are more likely to "catch" the loneliness of others , and that lonely people are less sincere with others, which prevents making new friends. Since isolation is associated with multiple life-shortening mental and physical illnesses, Cacioppo urges action.
The research has been funded by the US National Institute on Aging and published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology .
