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Evolutionary mechanisms for loneliness
Open accessAbstract
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.
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“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]
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“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”
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]
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“The evolutionary perspective of loneliness proposed by Cacioppo and colleagues (2006;Cacioppo, Cacioppo, & Boomsma, 2014) presents loneliness as an adaptive signal, similar to hunger and thirst, that motivates one to alter behavior in a way that will increase survival.”
From Loneliness and Social Isolation as Risk Factors for Mortality: A Meta-Analytic Review (2015) · cites this paper as Cacioppo, Cacioppo, & Boomsma, 2014
In the citing paper
“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]
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Why Loneliness Deserves Attention From Health Care
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Byrne, C., Coetzer, R., & Ramsey, R. (2024) · Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology · doi:10.1093/arclin/acae032 · Cited by 2
“, Thisted, R. A., Masi, C. M., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2010). Loneliness predicts increased blood pressure: 5-year cross-lagged analyses in middle-aged and older adults.”
InfluentialFeatures of the experience of loneliness among adults due to their personal characteristics
Ралифовна, М. И. (2024) · Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University Psychology · doi:10.21638/spbu16.2024.106 · Cited by 2
Karababa, A. (2024) · British Journal of Guidance and Counselling · doi:10.1080/03069885.2024.2384721 · Cited by 2
“…risk factor for both psychological and physical maladaptive outcomes, including depression, generalised anxiety, suicidal ideation, poor subjective well-being, and coronary heart disease (Beutel et al., 2017; Cacioppo et al., 2014; McClelland et al., 2020; Park et al., 2020; Valtorta et al., 2016).”
Wevers, A., Román-Mata, S. S., Ledesma, S. N., & Pruimboom, L. (2024) · Biomedicines · doi:10.3390/biomedicines12112539 · Cited by 4
“Although loneliness can feel like a negative emotion without value, it may have evolved as an aversive state, similar to hunger or pain, to drive behavior change [184].”
Lee, J., & Schafer, M. H. (2025) · Society and Mental Health · doi:10.1177/21568693241310875 · Cited by 2
“Evolutionary accounts of loneliness suggest that the perceived need for contact provides strong motivation to pursue this adaptation (Cacioppo, Cacioppo, and Boomsma 2014).”
Cho, E., & Demiris, G. (2025) · Psychology Health & Medicine · doi:10.1080/13548506.2025.2465651 · Cited by 3
“A significant positive association was also found between loneliness and social strain, supporting the ETL, which suggests that loneliness may increase hypervigilance to social threats and lead to heightened perceptions of social strain (Cacioppo et al., 2014).”
InfluentialBlind spots in health perception: the underestimated role of social connection for health outcomes
Proctor, A. S., & Holt‐Lunstad, J. (2025) · BMC Public Health · doi:10.1186/s12889-025-21554-5 · Cited by 3
The Psychology of Social Isolation and Loneliness in Later Life
Kehoe, L., & Orden, K. A. V. (2025) · Clinics in Geriatric Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.cger.2025.04.004 · Cited by 3
Affective economies of loneliness in school: bullying, violence, and undesirable social connections
Lohmeyer, B. A., & Forum, S. A. Y. (2025) · Critical Studies in Education · doi:10.1080/17508487.2025.2555310 · Cited by 2
Loneliness among schoolteachers in the context of COVID-19
Dor-Haim, P. (2021) · Journal of Educational Administration & History · doi:10.1080/00220620.2021.2017416 · Cited by 2
Hypocortisolemic reactivity to acute social stress among lonely young women
Stout, M. E., Keirns, B. H., & Hawkins, M. A. W. (2023) · Social Neuroscience · doi:10.1080/17470919.2023.2229082 · Cited by 3
“…particularly adaptive for individuals with low resources to cope with social stressors (Tops et al., 2015), and supported by the results of the present study and loneliness theory (Cacioppo et al., 2014), lonely individuals likely have fewer social cognitive resources than non-lonely individuals.”
BackgroundResultLoneliness in (inter)action: Behavioral correlates of loneliness in friendship interactions
Mund, M., Yang, J., & Qualter, P. (2023) · Current Research in Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.crbeha.2023.100135 · Cited by 3
Happiness Shapes and Is Shaped by Social Cognition and Social Connection
Okabe‐Miyamoto, K., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2024) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197763414.013.26 · Cited by 2
Acute isolation increases reward responsiveness in human adolescentsPreprint
Tomova, L., Towner, E., Thomas, K., & Blakemore, S. (2022) · Research Square · doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-2312406/v1 · Cited by 2
Acute isolation is associated with increased reward responsiveness in human adolescentsPreprint
Tomova, L., Towner, E., Thomas, K., & Blakemore, S. (2023) · Research Square · doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-2718114/v1 · Cited by 2
Bryan, B. T., Thompson, K. N., Fisher, H. L., Matthews, T., Milne, B., & Arseneault, L. (2026) · Development and Psychopathology · doi:10.1017/s0954579426101758 · Cited by 1
Narendran, M., Manjunath, R., & Murthy, M. R. N. (2023) · Indian Journal of Medical Specialities · doi:10.4103/injms.injms_94_22 · Cited by 1
Loneliness and the COVID-19 pandemic: implications for practice
Makey, L. M., Lewis, R., Ashmore, R., & Wigfield, A. (2024) · British Journal of Nursing · doi:10.12968/bjon.2024.33.3.110 · Cited by 1
A Phenomenological Analysis of Emerging Adults’ Social Group Disruptions
Hawkins, J. M., D’Aniello, C., Fife, S. T., Cravens, J. D., & Bean, R. A. (2024) · Journal of Adult Development · doi:10.1007/s10804-024-09492-9 · Cited by 1
“Cacioppo et al. (2014) categorized loneliness/connection into three dimensions: intimate, relational, and collective.”
InfluentialChurch Conflict, Loneliness, and the Bid to Belong
Lee, C. (2024) · Journal of Psychology and Theology · doi:10.1177/00916471241268840 · Cited by 1
“What Weiss calls the loneliness of emotional isolation , which may result from the triggering of early attachment trauma, aligns conceptually with Cacioppo et al.’s (2014) intimate domain.”
InfluentialBaim‐Lance, A. M., Cooley, S., Yoo‐Jeong, M., Ances, B. M., Duque, G., Ellis, R. J., Flexner, C. W., Pence, B. W., Plankey, M. W., Mullins, J. D., et al. (2024) · The Journals of Gerontology Series A · doi:10.1093/gerona/glae259 · Cited by 1
Communication behaviors that facilitate the detection of loneliness
Floyd, K., Zenzola, N., Carter, S. N., Marcucci, A., Zhao, Y., Woo, N. T., Custer, B. E., Dinsmore, D. R., Duncan, K. L., & Maré, J. L. (2025) · Communication Monographs · doi:10.1080/03637751.2025.2535974 · Cited by 1
“…loneliness evolved, in part, “to serve as a signal that one’s connections to others are frayed or broken and to motivate the repair and maintenance of the connections to others that are needed for our health and well-being as well as for the survival of our genes” (Cacioppo et al., 2014, p. 214).”
Influential
Metadata
- 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
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2013-09-25
- Volume
- 28
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 3-21
- ISSN
- 0269-9931 (ISSN-L)
- 1464-0600
- PMC
- PMC3855545
- 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
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- 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
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