Humans are meant to be around one another. It’s been that way for millennia. We needed each other to hunt, construct homes, procreate, care for our offspring and protect one another against the saber-toothed tigers and dire wolves that meant to harm us. We also need each other to be happy and to take up the burdens that sometimes weigh us down. All told, being a human is exceedingly difficult when life is lived alone.
Research shows that socialization is so engrained in our survival that when we’re lonely, it has both psychological and physical effects on us. It even impacts our brains.
An April 2023 study published in Psychological Science found that the brain scans of lonely people had different neurological responses than those who were not lonely. The differences were the most pronounced in the cerebral portion of the brain, known as the default-mode network.
According to study ...
