The relationship between loneliness and aloneness is not always evident in a society of infinite connections and continual communication. Now, researchers at the University of Arizona have examined that relationship and discovered that it is two distinct entities that are not closely related.
According to the study, people do not feel lonely until they spend three-quarters of their time alone. However, when their alone time exceeds 75%, they find it impossible to avoid emotions of loneliness.
The study also suggests that there is a particularly substantial link between time spent alone and feeling lonely among older people. Alex Danvers, a former UArizona postdoctoral associate, and Liliane Efinger, a former visiting graduate student, led the study.
Health Determinant
Professor of psychology at the University of Arizona and senior author of the paper David Sbarra noted that as people age, their social network contracts and their ability to spend time with others decreases for many older adults.
Among adults 68 years and older, we found that loneliness is strongly connected with being socially isolated,”
Sbarra said.
Mentioning the 2023 U.S. Surgeon General’s advisory about the pattern of increase in loneliness, Sbarra said attention increasingly has focused on loneliness as a health determinant.
“We are learning more and more about the importance of social connections for human health, and it appears that loneliness and isolation are related but distinct concepts,”
he said.
Electronically Activated Recorder
Professor of psychology at the University of Arizona Matthias Mehl, who is also a senior author of the study, explained that the researchers initiated this study because they needed an accurate estimate of the amount of time individuals spend alone.
Over the course of his career, Mehl has developed a method for studying social activity in everyday life. The Electronically Activated Recorder, or EAR, is a smartphone app that records with participants’ permission the sounds they make for 30 seconds every 12 minutes.
According to Sbarra, EAR is a good technique for observing daily social behaviors. The researchers employed EAR to quantify time spent alone in this study.
“Feeling lonely is different from being alone, and EAR is an exciting new method for assessing time spent alone,”
Sbarra said.
Age Differences
Overall, participants spent 66% of their time alone, and those who were alone for more than 75% of the time felt the most lonely. There was only a 3% overlap between aloneness and loneliness when the results from the complete subject pool were analyzed.
Mehl distinguishes between loneliness and aloneness in young individuals. They may feel lonely in a crowd, or they may not feel lonely while alone.
The case is different with older adults, Mehl said.
In older people, since feeling lonely and being alone are tightly linked, being with others and socializing is the way to combat feelings of loneliness, according to Mehl. The strong relationship between the two was found in adults older than 67, and there was an overlap of about 25% between loneliness and aloneness in older people, he said.
SocialBit
The study included over 400 participants and archival data collected in a series of studies completed over the last 20 years.
Although EAR has several advantages, it is a time-consuming way for academics to measure social behavior variables. Mehl is now working with a team to build SocialBit, a software that runs on a smartwatch, similar to commercially available fitness trackers, to prevent hours of coding sound files and to more efficiently quantify aloneness.
Mehl explained that, similar to how fitness trackers track physical activity by counting steps per day, SocialBit will track social activity by counting minutes of conversations per day.
The device is likely to be available within a couple of years. Mehl explained that the researchers are creating it for stroke patients throughout their recovery because social isolation is common after a stroke.
“In order to facilitate more social connection, we first need to be able to measure it well. Methods like SocialBit can tell people, ‘You’ve been solitary for too long. It’s time to try to have a conversation,'”
Mehl said.
Abstract
Loneliness—the subjective experience of social isolation—is a common experience that can become an enduring feature of everyday life. How does feeling lonely relate to spending time alone? In this descriptive-exploratory study, we used the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR), a naturalistic observation tool that samples sounds from participants’ daily lives, to assess time spent alone as an index of social isolation. We combined data from three samples (N = 426) to examine the association between subjective and objectively-assessed isolation, and whether the association varies as a function of gender, marital status, and age. The constructs are weakly but significantly correlated, and spending more than 75% of time alone was associated with much higher loneliness scores, especially among older adults.
Reference:
- Alexander F. Danvers et al. Loneliness and time alone in everyday life: A descriptive-exploratory study of subjective and objective social isolation. Journal of Research in Personality (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.jrp.2023.104426