n WELLNESS
I
magine your boss asking you these questions:
the results of which he and his research partner wrote about
How often do you feel you have nobody to talk to?
for Harvard Business Review, suggests that savvy CEOs should
How often do you feel shut out and excluded by others?
make addressing loneliness a priority, and that the solutions
How often do you feel as if nobody really understands you?
aren’t as simple as adding more Taco Tuesdays.
These aren’t just hypothetical. In 1978, psychologists at
UCLA asked 20 questions like these to create the Loneliness THE LONELY MIND
Scale, giving birth to a new field of research. Over the next few Let’s start by debunking some myths about loneliness. You can
decades, loneliness has been linked to higher risks of stress, de- be lonely even when surrounded by people, and you can be
mentia, cardiovascular disease, sleep deprivation and strokes. alone without feeling lonely. And a touch of loneliness can actu-
Loneliness can kill — a 2015 study from Brigham Young Uni- ally be useful. Think of it as a warning light on your car’s dash-
versity called it as damaging to life expectancy as smoking 15 board, telling you that something is wrong. “It’s a very function-
cigarettes a day.
al emotion,” says Ozcelik. “It’s a very primal drive. It goes back
It’s tricky to quantify exactly how loneliness has changed to our ancestors in the wilderness. We’re programmed to be
over time, but we do know it’s not rare. Nearly half (46 per- part of a group, because if you’re not, you’re not safe.”
cent) of adult Americans view themselves as lonely, according
Stephanie Cacioppo, a professor at University of Chicago
to a 20,000-person 2018 survey from Cigna, which used UCLA’s who focuses on psychology and neuroscience, explains lone-
Loneliness Scale. The percentage of people living alone has liness as “a state of mind.” It is a subjective feeling that can
nearly doubled from 1967 to 2017 (from 7.6 percent to 14.3 per- come and go. “You can be not lonely one day, and then lonely
cent, according to census data),
the next,” says Cacioppo. “You
and the number of people who
wake up and everything else
say they have no close friends
is the same — you still have
tripled from 1984 to 2004, ac-
the same job. The furniture
cording to a 2006 study in the
hasn’t moved. What’s differ-
American Sociological Review.
ent? Your brain.”
Former U.S. Surgeon General
Loneliness is a perception
Vivek H. Murthy calls it a “lone-
gap between how connected
liness epidemic,” and suggests
we think we should feel and
that loneliness should be tar-
how connected we actually
geted with a public outreach
feel, experts say. So when we
campaign in the same way we
see hundreds of online friends
do with cigarettes and obesi-
doing fabulous and Insta-
- Hakan Ozcelik,
ty, and last year, British Prime
grammable things, we’re more
Minister Theresa May appoint-
likely to feel the pang of lonely
professor of management, Sacramento State
ed a Minister for Loneliness.
disappointment. As Cacioppo
Could loneliness make us
says, “Social media is not help-
worse at our jobs? At Sacra-
ing us feel more social.”
mento State, a researcher and
Cacioppo describes a spe-
professor of management, Hakan Ozcelik, has been puzzling cific region of the brain that facilitates relationships with oth-
over this question for the last decade. In 2007, he was surprised ers as the “social brain network.” When you are lonely, certain
to find that no one had tackled loneliness in the workplace. communication-friendly zones of the brain shut down, such
“From a research perspective, it was like finding a goldmine,” as the temporo-parietal junction, which helps us see the world
he says, chuckling a bit. (Ozcelik is an unlikely expert of lone- from others’ perspectives — crucial to communication. At the
liness; his voice is chronically cheery, and he seems always on same time, other zones of the brain become hyperactive, such
the verge of a joke.)
as the visual cortex, which helps us sniff out threats. So with
So Ozcelik took the UCLA Loneliness Scale and adapted it the “lonely brain,” as she describes, “you’re going to be alert
for the workplace, and has been studying the intersection be- at all times, like a super bodyguard. You’re going to see more
tween loneliness and work for over a decade. This is a compli- negative information than positive.”
cated field with a jumble of interrelated variables, yet Ozcelik’s
Cacioppo gives an example: If you’re lonely, let’s say you
work offers insights into how loneliness, and the perception of meet a colleague that you have known for years. They look
loneliness, affects us in the workplace. His research, originally the same and they act the same. “But if you’re lonely,” says
published in the Academy of Management Journal last year and Cacioppo, “when you look at their face and see their eyebrow
“It’s a very primal drive. ...
We’re programmed to be part
of a group, because if you’re
not, you’re not safe.”
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comstocksmag.com | April 2019