We posted this research when it first came out but this is the best, brief description of how loneliness spreads. The full story notes that loneliness also is a health hazard, so it is important to know how loneliness could be transmitted from one person to another—even people who do not know one another.

The research is based on information collected as part of the famous Framingham heart study. The story says that researchers, wanting to be sure that they could track participants, asked them to list people most likely to know where they would be over the next few years and to note their relationship to the persons named.

This rich data was then mined this year to see how loneliness happens. Similar research has been done on happiness. I found both studies puzzling when published and, to some extent, still am.

Or, maybe the people I know are just more resistant to feeling negative about the reliably hostile drivers in the traffic circles that are part of the city of Washington’s design. If you let them ruin your morning, you would have no good mornings. Besides, it is a bonding moment. Who has the best crazy circle story of the day?

However, this is serious research. I am not making light of it. What these scientists are discovering is how negative (and earlier, positive) interactions ripple through a population, having profound effects on the people who live in that place.

The story notes that Framingham is not different from other cities examined.

The Economist

…”They report in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology that loneliness formed in clusters of people, and that once one person in a social network started expressing feelings of loneliness, others within the same network would start to feel the same way. The effects spread as far as three degrees of separation. Those who had immediate contact with lonely people were around 50% more likely than average to feel lonely themselves. In people who knew people who had direct contact with lonely people, the figure was 25%. Those with three degrees of separation showed roughly a 10% increase.

“The reason for the spread, the team argues, is because loneliness causes people to act towards others in a less generous and more negative fashion. As someone becomes lonely, he is more likely to interact with his friends negatively, and they are then more likely to interact with other friends negatively. If these interactions are repeated, the ties of friendships fray and people become lonelier and more isolated. (Emphasis added)

“The effects were more noticeable among friends than family, and stronger among women than men. The researchers argue that this is because the costs of abandoning relationships are lower for friends than they are for family members, and because women look to friends for emotional and social support more than men do. When they fail to receive it, they are more likely to become lonely. (Emphasis added)

“Yet these findings are only the first step. The team of researchers is starting to look at other towns and cities, to see if there are any public policies or city-planning techniques that thwart the spread of loneliness. No solutions have been discovered so far, but through the process of studying other communities the researchers have discovered that when it comes to having clusters of lonely people, Framingham, unfortunately, is very much like any other town in America.”

Source: The Economist, December 10, 2009