Loneliness Spreads
CNN Health reports on a study started in 1948 that shows that loneliness can spread among family and friends up to three degrees of separation.
The study called the Framingham Heart Study focused on thousands of people in Framingham, Massachusetts.
The research on loneliness focused on the second generation of people living there - 5124 people.
It shows that loneliness does not necessarily mean that you are alone, it means more that you feel isolated even though there may be lots of people around you.
The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology reported the study's findings, which were also elaborated upon by Dr.
Nicholas Christakis at Harvard University and James Fowler at the University of California, San Diego in their recent book Connected.
In the book, the authors discuss how certain social habits and behaviors appear to be contagious among groups of people who know each other.
Happiness, loneliness, obesity, smoking, drinking and a number of other behaviors and habits appear to travel around groups.
The two authors got together with John Cacioppo, a psychologist at the University of Chicago, author of a book called Loneliness, to study the effects of loneliness in social networks.
The Heart study kept track of people, their friends and relatives every two years to four years.
The researchers found that if someone you directly knew was lonely, you were 52 percent more likely to be lonely.
A friend of a friend, at two degrees of separation, would give you a 25 percent chance of being lonely and at three degrees of separation - someone who knows your friend's friend would have a 15 percent chance of being lonely.
It seems the quality of relationships not the quantity seems to determine a predisposition to loneliness.
People perceive loneliness as a social isolation, not based on the number of people around you.
People who found themselves to be lonely seemed to be highly sensitive to socially interactive situations and disconnections.
In the social network study different parameters were monitored.
Mood did not seem to affect how loneliness was transmitted within group, neither did depression.
Loneliness was passed more easily by women while happiness did not have as great a social distinction.
Loneliness seems to pass more quickly among family and friends, although when a relationship disconnects, it is easier to disconnect from friends than family members, especially in online social interactions.
The findings have strong implications for communities whether online or offline.
Social planning can design communities where there are greater opportunities to interact and intervene with lonely people, helping them to understand their behaviors that create the feelings of loneliness in the first place.
The study called the Framingham Heart Study focused on thousands of people in Framingham, Massachusetts.
The research on loneliness focused on the second generation of people living there - 5124 people.
It shows that loneliness does not necessarily mean that you are alone, it means more that you feel isolated even though there may be lots of people around you.
The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology reported the study's findings, which were also elaborated upon by Dr.
Nicholas Christakis at Harvard University and James Fowler at the University of California, San Diego in their recent book Connected.
In the book, the authors discuss how certain social habits and behaviors appear to be contagious among groups of people who know each other.
Happiness, loneliness, obesity, smoking, drinking and a number of other behaviors and habits appear to travel around groups.
The two authors got together with John Cacioppo, a psychologist at the University of Chicago, author of a book called Loneliness, to study the effects of loneliness in social networks.
The Heart study kept track of people, their friends and relatives every two years to four years.
The researchers found that if someone you directly knew was lonely, you were 52 percent more likely to be lonely.
A friend of a friend, at two degrees of separation, would give you a 25 percent chance of being lonely and at three degrees of separation - someone who knows your friend's friend would have a 15 percent chance of being lonely.
It seems the quality of relationships not the quantity seems to determine a predisposition to loneliness.
People perceive loneliness as a social isolation, not based on the number of people around you.
People who found themselves to be lonely seemed to be highly sensitive to socially interactive situations and disconnections.
In the social network study different parameters were monitored.
Mood did not seem to affect how loneliness was transmitted within group, neither did depression.
Loneliness was passed more easily by women while happiness did not have as great a social distinction.
Loneliness seems to pass more quickly among family and friends, although when a relationship disconnects, it is easier to disconnect from friends than family members, especially in online social interactions.
The findings have strong implications for communities whether online or offline.
Social planning can design communities where there are greater opportunities to interact and intervene with lonely people, helping them to understand their behaviors that create the feelings of loneliness in the first place.