Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social ConnectionBased on groundbreaking research showing that prolonged loneliness can be as harmful to your health as smoking, Loneliness is “one of the most important books about the human condition to appear in a decade” (Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness). University of Chicago social neuroscientist John T. Cacioppo pioneered research on the startling effects of loneliness: a sense of isolation or social rejection disrupts not only our ability to think and will power but also our immune systems, and can be as damaging as obesity or smoking. On the flip side, social connection can be a powerful therapy. Cacioppo’s sophisticated studies relying on brain imaging, analysis of blood pressure, immune response, stress hormones, behavior, and even gene expression show that human beings are simply far more intertwined and interdependent—physiologically as well as psychologically—than our cultural assumptions have ever allowed us to acknowledge. Loneliness traces the evolution of these tandem forces, showing how, for our primitive ancestors, survival depended not on greater brawn but on greater commitments to each other. Serving as a prompt to repair frayed social bonds, the pain of loneliness engendered a fear response so powerfully disruptive that even now, millions of years later, a persistent sense of rejection or isolation can impair DNA transcription in our immune cells. This disruption also impairs our ability to read social signals and exercise social skills, as well as limits our ability to internally regulate our emotions—all of which can combine to trap us in self-defeating behaviors that reinforce the very isolation and rejection that we dread. Loneliness shows us how to overcome this feedback loop to achieve better health and greater happiness. As individuals and as a society, we have everything to gain, and everything to lose, in how well or how poorly we manage our need for social bonds.
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From inside the book
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... friends , strangers ) while performing a task . We quickly surmised that it was an individ- ual's perceptions of the social situation that mattered most . We moved from an interest in social support to an interest in perceived social ...
... friends , students , and staff . Our scientific studies of the causes , nature , and consequences of loneliness and social connection have ranged across disciplinary , institutional , and interna- tional boundaries . The research has ...
... friends . And although expected , their deaths set off a tsunami of feelings and emotions as we dealt with the loss of our first connection to another person . Dealing with their loss made us even more grateful than before to our family ...
... friend . Transient loneliness is so com- mon , in fact , that we simply accept it as a part of life . Humans are , after all , inherently social beings . When people are asked what pleasures contribute most to happiness , the ...
... friends ? * 6 . How often do you feel that you have a lot in common with the people around you ? 7. How often do you feel that you are no longer close to anyone ? 8. How often do you feel that your interests and ideas are not shared by ...
Contents
1 | |
20 | |
35 | |
Selfish Genes Social Animals | 52 |
The Universal and the Particular | 73 |
CHAPTER | 92 |
From Selfish Genes to Social Beings | 111 |
An Indissociable Organism | 128 |
Conflicted by Nature | 169 |
Conflicts in Nature | 182 |
Finding Meaning in Connection | 199 |
Getting It Right | 221 |
The Power of Social Connection | 247 |
Notes | 271 |
Index | 297 |
Knowing Thyself among Others | 145 |
Other editions - View all
Loneliness: Human Nature And The Need For Social Connection John T Cacioppo,William Patrick Limited preview - 2009 |
Loneliness: Human Nature And The Need For Social Connection John T Cacioppo,William Patrick No preview available - 2009 |
Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection John T. Cacioppo,William Patrick No preview available - 2008 |