Loneliness and social behaviours in a virtual social environment

Abstract

Feeling lonely motivates people to reconnect with others, but it can also trigger a vicious cycle of cognitions and behaviours that reinforces their loneliness. In this study, we examined the behavioural consequences of loneliness in a virtual social environment. A total of 176 participants navigated a character (protagonist) through a two-dimensional browser game and rated the character's loneliness multiple times during the game. In the first part of the game, another character is introduced as the protagonist's spouse. At one point, the spouse leaves for an undetermined period of time but later returns. Immediately before this separation, higher ascribed loneliness of the protagonist was associated with more frequent interactions with the spouse. After the reunion, however, higher ascribed loneliness was associated with less frequent interactions with the spouse. Ascribed loneliness was not significantly related to the frequency of interactions with others nor to the frequency of solitary activities. These patterns held after controlling for ascribed positive affect. Participants' levels of loneliness were related to the level of ascribed loneliness only when the spouse was present but not when the spouse was absent. In sum, these findings suggest that the conditions that trigger the vicious cycle of loneliness are person- and situation-specific.

Keywords :

• Loneliness
• Perceived social isolation
• Virtual social environment

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here .

Notes

¹ In the absence of prior similar studies, we aimed at a sample size of N = 200 that is sufficient to detect moderate effect sizes. Of initially 211 participants, 35 only completed the baseline survey but did not play the Simoland game and were therefore not included in the final sample.

² Results are available from the first author upon request.

³ This conclusion is also backed by the responses to eight items designed to measure the credibility of the game (see Supplemental Table 4).