Is loneliness contagious like a virus based illness? Popular media accounts of a study by John Cacioppo et al to appear in the December issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (oddly, when I checked this morning, the issue was not up on the APA website) seem to suggest this might be so. Using social network analysis, it appears that a lonely person transmits loneliness to friends and friends of friends. For one account, here is the story by the Washingston Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/30/AR2009113003846_pf.html
There are critics of the research, some of whom are cited in the Washington Post article, but we'll have to wait for the article to go into general release before reviewing it ourselves. It should be noted that ealier this year Cacioppo and William Patrick published a book "Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Cognition". This book is briefly reviewed in the Psychology Today blog "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin (I assume those who are familiar with the PT blogs might be able to assess the general value of her insights and commentary); see: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-happiness-project/200911/lonely-and-not-happy Ms. Rubins one of happiness myths that Cacioppo and Patrick "debunk" is that "Happy people are annoying and stupid". I really am eager to see the research in support of this. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
