Loneliness research

According to Jordan, Monin, Dweck, Lovett, John and Gross (2011), we tend to underestimate the extent to which others experience negative emotions, while we tend to overestimate the extent to which other experience positive emotions. At the same time, we tend to downregulate postive, as well as negative emotions (i.e., we experience them to a stronger extent than we express them). In turn, this makes us feel bad, as lower estimation of the prevalalence of negative emotional experiences predicted greater loneliness and rumination, lower life satisfaction. According to the authors, that explains why we like Chekhov, and Facebook makes us sad.

On a different note, according to Boomsma, Willemsen, Dolan, Hawkley and Cacioppo (2005), 48% of variation in loneliness can be explained by genes.




@article{JordyMoni11,
title ={Misery Has More Company Than People Think: Underestimating the Prevalence of Others’ Negative Emotions},
author ={Jordan, A.H. and Monin, B. and Dweck, C.S. and Lovett, B.J. and John, O.P. and Gross, J.J.},
journal ={Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin},
volume ={37},
number ={1},
pages ={},
year ={2011},
}

@article{BoomyWill05c,title={Genetic and environmental contributions to loneliness in adults: The Netherlands Twin Register Study},author={Boomsma, D.I. and Willemsen, G. and Dolan, C.V. and Hawkley, L.C. and Cacioppo, J.T.},journal={Behavior Genetics},volume={35},number={6},pages={745--752},year={2005},}