ReviewCognition & emotion2014
Evolutionary mechanisms for loneliness.
Review in Cognition & emotion, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 188 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
188 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of mechanistic loneliness interventions for older adults.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025Pooled it
- Are social isolation and loneliness associated with cognitive decline in ageing?Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2023Pooled it
- Consumer loneliness: A systematic review and research agenda.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Pooled it
- Neurobiology of loneliness: a systematic review.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2021Pooled it
- Associations between loneliness and perceived social support and outcomes of mental health problems: a systematic review.BMC psychiatry · 2018Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of Loneliness and Smoking: Small Effects, Big Implications.Substance use & misuse · 2015Pooled it
- Loneliness before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review with meta-analysis.The American psychologistPooled it
- Efficacy of an Internet-based self-help intervention with human guidance or automated messages to alleviate loneliness: a three-armed randomized controlled trial.Scientific reports · 2024Trial
- Mindfulness training reduces loneliness and increases social contact in a randomized controlled trial.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2019Trial
- Loneliness predicts a preference for larger interpersonal distance within intimate space.PloS one · 2018Trial
- Loneliness in Focus: Proposing a Resident Curriculum.Academic psychiatry : the journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry · 2026Article
- Built Environment and Loneliness Trajectories Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults in China.Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine · 2026Article
- Novelty-seeking and directed exploration scale with dissociable social network outcomes and brain systems in older adults.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- The dynamics of loneliness: Longitudinal associations of anhedonia and dampening in a clinical sample of depressed individuals.Journal of affective disorders · 2026Article
- Contributors to co-occurring chronic loneliness and depression and anxiety and the role of adverse childhood experiences.Psychology and psychotherapy · 2026Article
- Better Together: Technology-Use Gaps and Loneliness in Older Adults.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Loneliness around the world: patterns, predictors, and well-being implications.European journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Social interactions and loneliness in daily life: A study of younger adults and cognitively diverse older adults.Developmental psychology · 2026Article
- Homophily in friendship choice during an early life transition: A cohort network dynamic approach.Evolution and human behavior : official journal of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society · 2026Article
- Association Between Self-Reported Pornographic Consumption Habits and Anxiety and Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
128 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Robert Weiss (1973) conceptualised loneliness as perceived social isolation, which he described as a gnawing, chronic disease without redeeming features. On the scale of everyday life, it is understandable how something as personally aversive as loneliness could be regarded as a blight on human existence. However, evolutionary time and evolutionary forces operate at such a different scale of organisation than we experience in everyday life that personal experience is not sufficient to understand the role of loneliness in human existence. Research over the past decade suggests a very different view of loneliness than suggested by personal experience, one in which loneliness serves a variety of adaptive functions in specific habitats. We review evidence on the heritability of loneliness and outline an evolutionary theory of loneliness, with an emphasis on its potential adaptive value in an evolutionary timescale.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.