Cited by 576Evolutionary Psychology and Human BehaviorDeath Anxiety and Social ExclusionHealth disparities and outcomes

Evolutionary mechanisms for loneliness

Open access
Cacioppo, John T., Cacioppo, Stephanie, Boomsma, Dorret I.·2014·Cognition and Emotion

Abstract

Robert Weiss (1973) conceptualised loneliness as perceived social isolation, which he described as a gnawing, chronic disease without redeeming features. On the scale of everyday life, it is understandable how something as personally aversive as loneliness could be regarded as a blight on human existence. However, evolutionary time and evolutionary forces operate at such a different scale of organisation than we experience in everyday life that personal experience is not sufficient to understand the role of loneliness in human existence. Research over the past decade suggests a very different view of loneliness than suggested by personal experience, one in which loneliness serves a variety of adaptive functions in specific habitats. We review evidence on the heritability of loneliness and outline an evolutionary theory of loneliness, with an emphasis on its potential adaptive value in an evolutionary timescale.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1080/02699931.2013.837379

Cites

128 of 128 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Chronic loneliness poses risks due to a self-reinforcing loneliness loop where lonely persons become distrustful and avoid future social interactions.

    “However, chronic loneliness poses potential risks due to its tendency to create a self-reinforcing loneliness loop where lonely persons become increasingly distrustful of others and anticipate negative relationships, and as a result, they would prefer to avoid future social interactions.85”

    From A Longitudinal Study of Loneliness Before the End of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Trajectories, Predictors, and Impact on Chinese Adolescent Mental Health (2024) · cites this paper as [85]

    In “Possible Evolutionary Mechanisms for Loneliness” (page unavailable), the paper describes negative social expectations that can be reinforced by others’ responses, leading lonely people to behave in ways that push others away. It does not say they prefer to avoid future social interactions; it says they want to be close to those people and are motivated to reconnect. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Transient loneliness may serve an evolutionary purpose by prompting people to reestablish connections for survival and genetic continuity.

    “Researchers have suggested that transient loneliness may serve an evolutionary purpose by prompting people to reestablish connections for the sake of survival and genetic continuity.85”
  • Loneliness operates as an aversive signal that promotes adaptation to being alone and motivates reconnection.

    “This model proposes that loneliness operates as an aversive signal designed to promote adaptation to the vulnerabilities of being alone and motivate reconnection32.”

    From Neural mechanisms of social homeostasis (2019) · cites this paper as [32]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. Hawkley LC Cacioppo JT Loneliness Encyclopedia of Human Relationships 2009 Thousand Oaks, CA Sage Press
  2. LeVine RA Campbell DT Ethnocentrism: Theories of conflict, ethnic attitudes, and group behavior 1972 New York (osv.) John Wiley

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Cacioppo, J. T., Cacioppo, S., & Boomsma, D. I.
Affiliations
  • University of Chicago (US)
  • Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL)
Corresponding author
Cacioppo, John T.
Venue
Cognition and Emotion
Published
2013-09-25
Volume
28
Issue
1
Pages
3-21
ISSN
  • 0269-9931 (ISSN-L)
  • 1464-0600
OpenAlex
W2109338375
Cited by
576
References
127
Citations by year
2026: 61 · 2025: 86 · 2024: 80 · 2023: 65 · 2022: 69 · 2021: 50 · 2020: 52 · 2019: 30 · 2018: 27 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 2
FWCI
14.45
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Cognition & Emotion (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • VU Research Portal (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
Funders
National Institute on Aging (P01AG018911, R37AG033590, R01AG034052, R01AG033590)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
  • Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
Keywords
loneliness, social isolation
MeSH terms
Animals, Biological Evolution, Humans, Loneliness, Psychological Theory

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review