Loneliness and cortisol are associated with social network regulation

ABSTRACT

This study examines how loneliness and the body’s stress response system interact to regulate social connections. We suggest that the drive to reconnect signaled by loneliness can be accompanied physiologically by the production of cortisol, which can offer supportive coping resources. Thus, we investigated how loneliness, cortisol levels, and their interaction predicted changes in network connections in a social organization. Participants (n = 193; 53% female) provided friendship network data at two times. At time 1, participants reported on loneliness and donated saliva (later assayed for cortisol). Results revealed that concurrently, lonely individuals reported fewer friendships, whereas over time, they named more friends. These results support the hypothesis that loneliness is a signal to develop connections. We also explored whom lonely individuals befriended over time. Results showed that cortisol significantly moderated the preference for friends with a similar level of loneliness. Specifically, lonely individuals with higher cortisol befriended those who were less lonely over those who were lonelier. Thus, cortisol levels may serve an adaptive function in mobilizing resources to develop connections that fulfill social belongingness needs. Results supported the theorized signaling function of loneliness and revealed that loneliness and the stress response system interact to shape social connections.

KEYWORDS:

• Loneliness
• cortisol
• social network dynamics
• stochastic actor-oriented modeling
• RSiena

Acknowledgments

We appreciate the participation by members of the 2013-14 Arizona State University (ASU) marching band and the efforts of Serena Weren, Gary Hill, and James G. Hudson. We also acknowledge Anne Reinhard, Jessica Bayer, Julianna Goenaga, Claire Yee, Maria Pelaez, Kristen Granger, and Ryan Field for biotechnical support and assistance with data collection. Data collection was supported in part by a seed grant from the Herberger School of Music at ASU and reagents were donated by Salimetrics LLC (Carlsbad, CA). Olga Kornienko was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health Loan Repayment Award (L30 DA042448).

Disclosure statement

In the interest of full disclosure, DAG is founder and Chief Scientific and Strategy Advisor at Salimetrics LLC and Salivabio LLC and these relationships are managed by the policies of the committees on conflict of interest at the University of California, Irvine and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.  No other authors have information to disclose.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Notes

¹ Given that the association between loneliness levels and friendship dynamics could conceivably be moderated by student class standing (i.e., more pronounced for freshmen vs. seniors), we included interactions between the number of semesters the focal individual attended college and how loneliness was associated with their incoming and outgoing ties as well as homophily. None of these interactions were significant. This model is presented in the Online Supplemental Materials.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health Loan Repayment Award [L30 DA042448].