Khaberni - We often associate solitude with the absence of people around us, but two recent studies offer a completely different perspective.
Researchers found that it's not only about the social relationships we have, but the way we feel about these relationships.
The first study, published by JAMA Network Open, introduced a new concept researchers called "social asymmetry," which is the gap between the actual social isolation a person experiences and their internal feelings of loneliness.
This study included 7,845 individuals over the age of fifty in England, who were followed for approximately 13 and a half years.
The results were surprising: participants who felt lonely despite having relatively good social networks faced higher risks of death, heart diseases, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. However, those who were socially isolated but did not feel lonely, did not show significant health risks.
Anthony Ong, one of the study researchers, said, "Most health advice about loneliness focuses on expanding social networks. But our study suggests that connection alone is not enough. Two people might have identical social conditions, but their health trajectories can be very different depending on how they feel about these conditions."
In other words, it’s not just the presence of social relationships in your life that matters, but how you view and experience these relationships. Some people have many friends and family but feel lonely, and these are the ones most at risk for health issues. Others who live alone but do not suffer from feelings of loneliness are in a much better position.
The encouraging news, according to the researchers, is that this "social asymmetry" can be measured, which means it is possible to identify people at higher risk before significant health problems appear.
The second study was different in its approach. It followed 157 people over 20 days, during which they responded to alerts on their phones five times a day, recording their feelings of loneliness, whether they interacted with others, and whether they felt rejected or criticized.
The researchers discovered that loneliness is not a static characteristic in a person, but a dynamic, changing system. In moments when a person feels lonely, they become more sensitive to social threats, such as feeling rejected or criticized. This feeling drives them to withdraw and avoid interacting with others, and not to share their feelings. Over time, a vicious cycle develops: loneliness leads to withdrawal, and withdrawal increases loneliness.
The researchers describe this process as "self-reinforcing sequences," where feelings and behaviors feed on each other, and the spiral becomes stronger with each iteration.
Ong explains, "Loneliness isn’t just something people carry with them; it shapes how they understand social situations and impacts what they do next. When someone feels lonelier than usual, it’s likely that they see the next social interaction as a threat, and this perception drives them to distance themselves."
He gives an example with a flywheel: "Once it starts spinning, each moment adds new momentum, and it becomes very difficult to stop it without intentional intervention to break the cycle."
Furthermore, the study found that people suffering from chronic loneliness are more prone to this spiral, and the relationship between their emotions and behaviors is stronger and more persistent, making it harder to break out of it.
The studies offer a completely new insight into loneliness. Instead of considering it merely a deficiency in social interaction, loneliness appears to be a deeper disconnection between what a person experiences internally and reality around them. This disconnection is shaped by how the person perceives social situations, is reinforced by their behaviors, and over time, impacts their physical health.
This might explain why some people feel lonely despite having friends and family, and why simply adding more social interactions doesn’t solve the problem.
Finally, the researchers conclude that addressing loneliness requires more than just expanding social networks. When a person’s interpretation of social situations focuses on threat and fear of rejection, new relationships might confirm their fears rather than heal them. Therefore, interventions must focus not only on the external conditions causing loneliness but also on the internal dynamics of emotions and behaviors that continue to fuel this vicious cycle.
