John T. Cacioppo - Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection

The Lonely Heart

The writing of this book was a collaboration involving two authorsan invaluable form of social connectionyet only one was a participant in the more than twenty years of scientific research that is the foundation of the story. Thus, for the sake of convenience and clarity, we chose to write in the first-person singular with John Cacioppo as the narrative voice. We employ that convention in these acknowledgments as well.

But even the research that I, John Cacioppo, conducted was never a solo effort. That research on social connection began in the early 1990s at Ohio State University, where I taught. We (my scientific colleagues and I) began with the simple question of what are the effects of human association. To address this question, we first conducted experiments in which individuals were randomly assigned to be alone or with others of various kinds (e.g., friends, strangers) while performing a task. We quickly surmised that it was an individuals perceptions of the social situation that mattered most. We moved from an interest in social support to an interest in perceived social isolationlonelinessas a model system for studying the role of the social world in human biology and behavior. Doing so changed how we conceived the human mind as well.

The dominant metaphor for the scientific study of the human mind during the latter half of the twentieth century has been the computera solitary device with massive information processing capacities. Our studies of loneliness left us unsatisfied with this metaphor. Computers today are massively interconnected devices with capacities that extend far beyond the resident hardware and software of a solitary computer. It became apparent to us that the telereceptors (e.g., eyes, ears) of the human brain have provided wireless broadband interconnectivity to humans for millennia. Just as computers have capacities and processes that are transduced through but extend far beyond the hardware of a single computer, the human brain has evolved to promote social and cultural capacities and processes that are transduced through but extend far beyond a solitary brain. To understand the full capacity of humans, one needs to appreciate not only the memory and computational power of the brain but its capacity for representing, understanding, and connecting with other individuals. That is, one needs to recognize that we have evolved a powerful, meaning-making social brain.

The notion that humans are inherently social creatures is no longer contestable, but what precisely this means for lives and societies is not fully appreciated either. Governments worldwide rely on economic advisors while publicly mocking scientific studies of social relationships. In an issue of the popular science magazine Scientific American , the editors observed that whenever we run articles on social topics, some readers protest that we should stick to real science. The editors went on to say:

Ironically, we seldom hear these complaints from working physical or biological scientists. They are the first to point out that the natural universe, for all its complexity, is easier to understand than the human being. If social science seems mushy, it is largely because the subject matter is so difficult, not because humans are somehow unworthy of scientific inquiry. (The Peculiar Institution, April 30, 2002, p. 8)

The fact that loneliness is unpleasant is obvious. In Genesis, Adam and Eves punishment for disobeying God was their exile from Eden. In Ovids Metamorphoses , Zeus decided to destroy the men of the Bronze Age by flooding Hellas. Deucalion survived by constructing a chest and, with Pyrrha, drifted to Parnassus. Deucalion realized that however difficult or impossible it is to live with others, even more difficult and more impossible is it to live without them, in complete loneliness. When Zeus granted him to choose what he wished, he chose to create others. However, the notion that loneliness plays an important function for humans, just as do physical pain, hunger, and thirst, and that understanding this function and its effects on social cognition holds some of the secrets to healthier, wealthier, happier lives is not so apparent.

Perhaps fittingly, this book on the science of social connection reflects the contributions of many brilliant and wonderful colleagues, friends, students, and staff. Our scientific studies of the causes, nature, and consequences of loneliness and social connection have ranged across disciplinary, institutional, and international boundaries. The research has included genetic, immunologic, endocrinologic, autonomic, brain imaging, behavioral, cognitive, emotional, personological, social psychological, demographic, and sociological analyses. The range of studies we sought to conduct exceeded my expertise, so scientists from various disciplines have contributed their time, expertise, and insights. These scientific collaborations provided synergies that transformed the research we were able to conduct and amplified the scientific story that unfolded before us.

We (William Patrick and I) wish to thank all the individuals who volunteered to participate in this research over the past two decades. Without their participation and assistance, none of this would have been possible. This book describes the stories of a number of the individuals we studied or interviewed to give a face to our findings. Bill and I have changed the names of and various irrelevant details about these individuals to ensure their true identity is protected. In the case of Katie Bishop, an individual whose case we return to repeatedly in the book, we have used a composite character. This was done to protect the confidentiality of the individuals who participated in our studies.

Among those who are owed special recognition and thanks are Louise Hawkley (University of Chicago), a close scientific collaborator on all aspects of this research for more than a decade, and Gary Berntson (Ohio State University), a close collaborator for the past two decades. In addition, Jan Kiecolt-Glaser (Ohio State University Medical School), William Malarkey (Ohio State University Medical School), Ron Glaser (Ohio State University Medical School), Michael Browne (Ohio State University), Robert MacCallum (University of North Carolina), Phil Marucha (University of Illinois Chicago), Bert Uchino (University of Utah), John Ernst (Illinois Wesleyan University), Mary Burleson (Arizona State University), Tiffany Ito (University of Colorado), Mary Snydersmith (Ohio State University), Kirsten Poehlmann (University of California San Diego), Ray Kowalewski (Microsoft Corporation), David Lozano (Mindware Corp.), Alisa Paulsen (Ohio State University), and Dan Litvack (Ohio State University) played critical roles in the early stages of our program of research.