scholarly journals Loneliness and the Social Brain: How Perceived Social Isolation Impairs Human Interactions

2021 ◽  
pp. 2102076
Author(s):  
Jana Lieberz ◽  
Simone G. Shamay‐Tsoory ◽  
Nira Saporta ◽  
Timo Esser ◽  
Ekaterina Kuskova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Isolation ◽  
Social Brain ◽  
Human Interactions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Perceived Social Isolation

How does social isolation in a context of dirty work increase emotional exhaustion and inhibit work engagement? A process model

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (8) ◽  
pp. 1620-1634 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Bentein ◽  
Alice Garcia ◽  
Sylvie Guerrero ◽  
Olivier Herrbach
Keyword(s):  
Social Isolation ◽  
Emotional Exhaustion ◽  
Work Engagement ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Dirty Work ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Social ◽  
Perceived Social Isolation

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the consequences of experiencing social isolation in a context of dirty work. Relying on an integration of the job demands-resources model (Schaufeli and Bakker, 2004) with the social identity approach (Ashforth and Kreiner, 1999), the paper posits that perceived social isolation prevents the development of defense mechanisms that could counter the occupational stigma, and thus tends to increase perceptions of stigmatization, and to decrease perceptions of the prosocial impact of their work. Through these two perceptions, perceived social isolation indirectly affects emotional exhaustion and work engagement. Design/methodology/approach Research hypotheses are tested among a sample of 195 workers in the commercial cleaning industry who execute physically tainted tasks. Findings Results support the research model. Perceived prosocial impact mediates the negative relationship between perceived social isolation and work engagement, and perceived stigmatization mediates the positive relationship between perceived social isolation and emotional exhaustion. Research limitations/implications This research contributes to the dirty work literature by empirically examining one of its implicit assumptions, namely, that social isolation prevents the development of coping strategies. It also contributes to the literature on well-being and work engagement by demonstrating how they are affected by the social context of work. Originality/value The present paper is the first to study the specific challenges of social isolation in dirty work occupations and its consequences.

scholarly journals Neuroimaging studies exploring the neural basis of social isolation

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niccolò Zovetti ◽  
Maria Gloria Rossetti ◽  
Cinzia Perlini ◽  
Paolo Brambilla ◽  
Marcella Bellani
Keyword(s):  
Social Isolation ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Social Brain ◽  
Temporal Lobes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Neural Underpinnings ◽  
Parietal Cortices ◽  
Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus

Abstract According to the social brain hypothesis, the human brain includes a network designed for the processing of social information. This network includes several brain regions that elaborate social cues, interactions and contexts, i.e. prefrontal paracingulate and parietal cortices, amygdala, temporal lobes and the posterior superior temporal sulcus. While current literature suggests the importance of this network from both a psychological and evolutionary perspective, little is known about its neurobiological bases. Specifically, only a paucity of studies explored the neural underpinnings of constructs that are ascribed to the social brain network functioning, i.e. objective social isolation and perceived loneliness. As such, this review aimed to overview neuroimaging studies that investigated social isolation in healthy subjects. Social isolation correlated with both structural and functional alterations within the social brain network and in other regions that seem to support mentalising and social processes (i.e. hippocampus, insula, ventral striatum and cerebellum). However, results are mixed possibly due to the heterogeneity of methods and study design. Future neuroimaging studies with longitudinal designs are needed to measure the effect of social isolation in experimental v. control groups and to explore its relationship with perceived loneliness, ultimately helping to clarify the neural correlates of the social brain.

Guzmán de Alfarache’s “Otro yo”1

2020 ◽  
pp. 158-175
Author(s):  
Donald Gilbert-Santamaría
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Social Isolation ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
Mateo Aleman ◽  
Unsuccessful Attempt ◽  
Human Interactions ◽  
Guzman De Alfarache ◽  
The Social ◽  
Almost All

A version of this chapter has appeared previously in print (“Guzmán de Alfarache’s ‘Other Self’: The Limits of Friendship in Spanish Picaresque Fiction” in Discourses and Representations of Friendship in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1700). In a brief episode from the longer fictional autobiographical narrative of Guzmán de Alfarache, Mateo Alemán explores the isolation of his picaresque protagonist through the device of friendship. Echoing concerns that go back as far as Cicero’s De amicitia, Guzmán’s formulation of the problem of finding friends highlights the social isolation of urban picaresque existence, that is, of life in a world in which deception and misrepresentation serve as the currency for almost all human interactions. After several chapters in which Guzmán only partially succeeds in finding friendship, the episode ends with the suicide of the protagonist’s only friend. Despite its ultimately unsuccessful attempt to recalibrate the expectations of Aristotelian perfect friendship to the demands of the picaresque world, the novel nevertheless anticipates aspects of Cervantes’s more ambitious literary experiment with the representation of friendship in Don Quixote.

The Need to Belong and the Relationship Between Loneliness and Health

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 194-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Freda-Marie Hartung ◽  
Britta Renner
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Social Isolation ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
First Year ◽  
Health State ◽  
Need To Belong ◽  
First Year University ◽  
Perceived Social Isolation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Humans are social animals; consequently, a lack of social ties affects individuals’ health negatively. However, the desire to belong differs between individuals, raising the question of whether individual differences in the need to belong moderate the impact of perceived social isolation on health. In the present study, 77 first-year university students rated their loneliness and health every 6 weeks for 18 weeks. Individual differences in the need to belong were found to moderate the relationship between loneliness and current health state. Specifically, lonely students with a high need to belong reported more days of illness than those with a low need to belong. In contrast, the strength of the need to belong had no effect on students who did not feel lonely. Thus, people who have a strong need to belong appear to suffer from loneliness and become ill more often, whereas people with a weak need to belong appear to stand loneliness better and are comparatively healthy. The study implies that social isolation does not impact all individuals identically; instead, the fit between the social situation and an individual’s need appears to be crucial for an individual’s functioning.

People represent their own mental states more distinctly than others’

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Allen Thornton ◽  
Miriam E. Weaverdyck ◽  
Judith Mildner ◽  
Diana Tamir
Keyword(s):  
Mental State ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
Social Brain ◽  
Privileged Access ◽  
Behavioral Studies ◽  
The Social ◽  
External Cues

One can never know the internal workings of another person – one can only infer others’ mental states based on external cues. In contrast, each person has direct access to the contents of their own mind. Here we test the hypothesis that this privileged access shapes the way people represent internal mental experiences, such that they represent their own mental states more distinctly than the states of others. Across four studies, participants considered their own and others’ mental states; analyses measured the distinctiveness of mental state representations. Two neuroimaging studies used representational similarity analyses to demonstrate that the social brain manifests more distinct activity patterns when thinking about one’s own states versus others’. Two behavioral studies support these findings. Further, they demonstrate that people differentiate between states less as social distance increases. Together these results suggest that we represent our own mind with greater granularity than the minds of others.

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