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Lonely People’s Brains Work Differently

Without the backup of friends and family, our brains become alert to threat, especially the potential danger posed by strangers.
Farah Mohamed
By 

Managing Editor, The WorldPost

One of the saddest things about loneliness is that it leads to what psychologists call a “negative spiral.” People who feel isolated come to dread bad social experiences and they lose faith that it’s possible to enjoy good company. The usual result, as Melissa Dahl recently noted, is more loneliness. This hardly seems adaptive, but experts say it’s because we’ve evolved to enter a self-preservation mode when we’re alone. Without the backup of friends and family, our brains become alert to threat, especially the potential danger posed by strangers.

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