Lonely People Process Things Differently Than Peers, Which May Have Contributed to Feeling of Being Less Understood [Study]

Being misunderstood often leaves one to feeling lonely. A new study suggests that the brain of sad individuals works differently from their peers, which may have contributed to their feeling of being isolated.

Lonely People See the World Differently

Even if you have friends, being surrounded by people with different worldviews increases your likelihood of feeling lonely; people describe loneliness as a feeling when their need for social contact and relationship isn't met. However, loneliness is not the same for everyone, per Mind.

The processing of information in the brains of lonely people differs significantly from that of their contemporaries, according to 66 young adults who underwent neuroimaging testing.

College students aged 18 to 21 participated in the study. The researchers employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to monitor brain activity while the participants watched 14 video segments, ScienceAlert reported.

It was intended for the content to be interesting enough to reduce data disparities brought about by participants' minds straying during the exercise. The videos covered a variety of subjects, including celebratory music videos, sporting events, and party scenes.

The participants used the UCLA Loneliness Scale to gauge their social isolation and loneliness levels. Based on the results, the participants were split into two groups - lonely and "nonlonely." The second category is those who were not experiencing loneliness.

Psychologist Elisa Baek and her team compared activity in each brain region between different people to determine how similar or dissimilar the reactions were. They looked at how 214 different brain regions reacted to triggers in the films over time.

People with high levels of loneliness, regardless of the number of close companions they had, were more likely to have distinctive brain reactions, whereas nonlonely persons were more or less comparable neurologically.

According to Baek and colleagues' published research, "Our results suggest that lonely individuals process the world in a way that is dissimilar to their peers and to each other," which may contribute to the diminished sense of being understood that frequently goes along with loneliness.

It's unclear if a person's unique processing is the cause or effect of their loneliness. Still, there's little doubt that a lack of mutual understanding will hamper the ability to form relationships.

Lonely People Are Also Not The Same

The research from the University of California found significant differences existed between lonely and nonlonely volunteers and between individual loners.

It was surprising that lonely people were even less similar, Baek said.

The fact that they don't find commonality with lonely or nonlonely people makes achieving social connections even more difficult.

The worst part of loneliness is that it's not always visible to those around us. That sense of disconnection can severely harm emotional and physical health.

Hopefully, future studies will uncover ways to make lonely people feel more understood and connected.

The study was published in Psychological Science.

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