tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/lonliness-86804/articlesLonliness – The Conversation2024-02-12T13:26:31Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2210862024-02-12T13:26:31Z2024-02-12T13:26:31ZAI ‘companions’ promise to combat loneliness, but history shows the dangers of one-way relationships<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574495/original/file-20240208-20-r5ul6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C7000%2C4663&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Would flattery from an AI set your heart aflutter?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/male-hand-reaching-out-from-computer-screen-holding-royalty-free-image/1682239343">quantic69/iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The United States is in the grips of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/curing-americas-loneliness-epidemic-would-make-us-healthier-fitter-and-less-likely-to-abuse-drugs-206059">loneliness epidemic</a>: Since 2018, about <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf">half the population</a> has reported that it has experienced loneliness. Loneliness can be as dangerous to your health <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf">as smoking 15 cigarettes a day</a>, according to a 2023 surgeon general’s report. </p>
<p>It is not just individual lives that are at risk. Democracy <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/fivethirtyeight-political-consequences-of-loneliness">requires</a> the capacity to feel <a href="https://www.ips-journal.eu/topics/democracy-and-society/loneliness-is-breaking-america-5329/">connected</a> to other citizens in order to work toward collective solutions. </p>
<p>In the face of this crisis, tech companies offer a technological cure: emotionally intelligent chatbots. These digital friends, they say, can help alleviate the loneliness that threatens individual and national health.</p>
<p>But as the pandemic showed, technology alone is not sufficient to address the complexities of public health. Science can produce miraculous vaccines, but if people are enmeshed in cultural and historical narratives that prevent them from taking the life-saving medicine, the cure sits on shelves and lives are lost. The humanities, with their expertise in human culture, history and literature, can play a key role in preparing society for the ways that AI might help – or harm – the capacity for meaningful human connection. </p>
<p>The power of stories to both predict and influence human behavior has long been validated by scientific research. Numerous studies demonstrate that the stories people embrace heavily influence the choices they make, ranging from the <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/su6129387">vacations they plan</a>, to <a href="https://www.apha.org/Topics-and-Issues/Climate-Health-and-Equity/Storytelling">how people approach climate change</a> to the computer programming <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/2335356.2335364">choices security experts make</a>.</p>
<h2>Two tales</h2>
<p>There are two storylines that address people’s likely behaviors in the face of the unknown territory of depending on AI for emotional sustenance: one that promises love and connection, and a second that warns of dehumanizing subjugation. </p>
<p>The first story, typically told by software designers and AI companies, urges people to <a href="https://fptsoftware.com/resource-center/blogs/solving-the-modern-loneliness-epidemic-say-i-do-to-ai">say “I do” to AI</a> and embrace bespoke friendship programmed on your behalf. AI company <a href="https://replika.com/">Replika</a>, for instance, promises that it can provide everyone with a “companion who cares. Always here to listen and talk. Always on your side.”</p>
<p>There is a global appetite for such digital companionship. Microsoft’s digital chatbot <a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/ai/xiaoice-full-duplex/">Xiaoice</a> has a global <a href="https://news.microsoft.com/apac/features/much-more-than-a-chatbot-chinas-xiaoice-mixes-ai-with-emotions-and-wins-over-millions-of-fans/">fan base of over 660 million people</a>, many of whom consider the chatbot “a dear friend,” even a trusted confidante.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">In the film “Her,” the protagonist develops a romantic relationship with a sophisticated AI chatbot.</span></figcaption>
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<p>In popular culture, films like “<a href="https://www.warnerbros.com/movies/her">Her</a>” depict lonely people becoming deeply attached to their digital assistants. For many, having a “dear friend” programmed to avoid difficult questions and demands seems like a huge improvement over the messy, challenging, vulnerable work of engaging with a human partner, especially if you consider the misogynistic preference for <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/05/1038691">submissive, sycophantic companions</a>.</p>
<p>To be sure, imagining a chummy relationship with a chatbot offers a sunnier set of possibilities than the apocalyptic narratives of slavery and subjugation that have dominated storytelling about a possible future among social robots. Blockbuster films like “<a href="https://www.warnerbros.com/movies/matrix">The Matrix</a>” and the “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088247/">The Terminator</a>” have depicted hellscapes where humans are enslaved by sentient AI. Other narratives featured in films like “<a href="https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/the-creator">The Creator</a>” and “<a href="https://www.warnerbros.com/movies/blade-runner">Blade Runner</a>” imagine the roles reversed and invite viewers to sympathize with AI beings who are oppressed by humans. </p>
<h2>One reality</h2>
<p>You could be forgiven for thinking that these two stories, one of friendship, the other of slavery, simply represent two extremes in human nature. From this perspective it seems like a good thing that marketing messages about AI are guiding people toward the sunny side of the futuristic street. But if you consider the work of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3299219">scholars</a> who have studied slavery in the U.S., it becomes frighteningly clear that these two stories – one of <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674024335">purchased friendship</a> and one of enslavement and exploitation – are not as far apart as you might imagine. </p>
<p>Chattel slavery in the U.S. was a brutal system designed to extract labor through violent and dehumanizing means. To sustain the system, however, an intricate emotional landscape was designed to keep the enslavers self-satisfied. “Gone with the Wind” is perhaps the most famous depiction of how enslavers saw themselves as benevolent patriarchs and forced enslaved people to reinforce this fiction through cheerful <a href="https://utc.iath.virginia.edu/uncletom/utfihbsa41t.html">professions of love</a>. </p>
<p>In his <a href="https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/douglass/douglass.html">1845 autobiography</a>, Frederick Douglass described a tragic occasion when an enslaved man, asked about his situation, honestly replied that he was ill-treated. The plantation owner, confronted with testimony about the harm he was inflicting, sold the truth-teller down the river. Such cruelty, Douglass insisted, was the necessary penalty for someone who committed the sin “of telling the simple truth” to a man whose emotional calibration required constant reassurance. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574450/original/file-20240208-16-jlk9nw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="an old fashioned illustration of a black man seated next to a seated young white woman" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574450/original/file-20240208-16-jlk9nw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574450/original/file-20240208-16-jlk9nw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574450/original/file-20240208-16-jlk9nw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574450/original/file-20240208-16-jlk9nw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574450/original/file-20240208-16-jlk9nw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574450/original/file-20240208-16-jlk9nw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574450/original/file-20240208-16-jlk9nw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin,’ a 19th-century blockbuster novel, featured an enslaved man who professed unwavering love for his enslavers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1976-0515-17">The British Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
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<h2>History lesson</h2>
<p>To be clear, I am not evoking the emotional coercion that enslavement required in order to conflate lonely seniors with evil plantation owners, or worse still, to equate computer code with enslaved human beings. There is little danger that AI companions will courageously tell us truths that we would rather not hear. That is precisely the problem. My concern is not that people will harm sentient robots. I fear how humans will be damaged by the moral vacuum created when their primary social contacts are designed solely to serve the emotional needs of the “user.” </p>
<p>At a time when humanities scholarship can help guide society in the emerging age of AI, it is being <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/02/03/1077878538/legislation-restricts-what-teachers-can-discuss">suppressed</a> and <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2022/12/11/discounted-tuition-major-devalues-humanities-letter">devalued</a>. Diminishing the humanities risks denying people access to their own history. That ignorance renders people ill-equipped to resist marketers’ assurances that there is no harm in buying “friends.” People are cut off from the wisdom that surfaces in stories that warn of the moral rot that accompanies unchecked power. </p>
<p>If you rid yourself of the vulnerability born of reaching out to another human whose response you cannot control, you lose the capacity to fully care for another and to know yourself. As we navigate the uncharted waters of AI and its role in our lives, it’s important not to forget the poetry, <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674024106">philosophy</a> and <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/117647/beloved-by-toni-morrison/9780525659273">storytelling</a> that remind us that human connection is supposed to require something of us, and that it is worth the effort.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221086/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Mae Duane does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Tech companies are offering AI companions as a convenient cure for the loneliness epidemic, but there have been other forms of faux relationships, and they tend to have more to do with ego than heart.Anna Mae Duane, Director, University of Connecticut Humanities Institute; Professor of English, University of ConnecticutLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2185102024-01-09T19:15:38Z2024-01-09T19:15:38ZWanting to ‘move on’ is natural – but women’s pandemic experiences can’t be lost to ‘lockdown amnesia’<p>The COVID-19 pandemic was – and continues to be – hugely disruptive and stressful for individuals, communities and countries. Yet many seem desperate to close the chapter entirely, almost as if it had never happened. </p>
<p>This desire to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/03/13/brain-memory-pandemic-covid-forgetting/">forget and move on</a> – labelled “<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/be70b24e-8ca0-4681-a23b-0c59c69a2616">lockdown amnesia</a>” by some – is understandable at one level. But it also risks missing the opportunity to learn from what happened.</p>
<p>And while various official enquiries and royal commissions have been established to examine the wider government responses (including in New Zealand), the experiences of ordinary people are equally important to understand.</p>
<p>As researchers interested in women and gender roles, we wanted to capture some of this. For the past three years, our research has focused on what happened to everyday women during this period of uncertainty and disruption – and what lessons might be learned.</p>
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<h2>Pandemic amnesia</h2>
<p>Individual memory can become vague as time goes on. But this can also be affected by broader narratives (in the media or official responses) that overwrite our own recollections of the pandemic.</p>
<p>Political calls to “<a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/11/8/340">live with the virus</a>”, and <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018849569/sick-and-tired-of-the-sickness">media hesitancy</a> to publish COVID-related stories due to perceived audience fatigue, can create a collective sense of needing to “move on”. Looking back can be seen as questionable, or even attacked.</p>
<p>Indeed, misinformation and disinformation have been used, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Risk/Lupton/p/book/9781032327006">in the words</a> of leading pandemic social scientist Deborah Lupton, to “challenge science and manufacture dissent against attempts to tackle [such] crises”.</p>
<p>But as the memory scholar <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/17506980231184563?casa_token=Wrs8pMKoFqcAAAAA:N9DN9rb9XNopHSIF2af2q8z4Ue457oW6l-mqPtBlmUQSy6dw53DYhQWxgk8BLe3SyWIzlkXTnvAPrYw">Sydney Goggins has put it</a>, such “public forgetting leads to a cascade of impacts on policy and social wellbeing”.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/jacinda-arderns-resignation-gender-and-the-toll-of-strong-compassionate-leadership-198152">Jacinda Ardern's resignation: gender and the toll of strong, compassionate leadership</a>
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<h2>A gendered pandemic</h2>
<p>Responding to the rapidly changing social, cultural and economic impacts of the pandemic, feminist scholars have highlighted the particular <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/Articles/10.3389/Fgwh.2020.588372/Full">physical and emotional toll</a> on women worldwide.</p>
<p>This has included <a href="https://academic.oup.com/biomedgerontology/article/77/Supplement_1/S31/6463712">social isolation and loneliness</a>, increased <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15487733.2020.1776561?src=recsys">domestic and emotional labour</a>, the rise in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7262164/">domestic and gender-based violence</a>, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13545701.2021.1876906">job losses and financial insecurity</a>. Black, Indigenous, minority and migrant women have <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/08912432211001302">felt these impacts</a> particularly keenly.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/informit.777013552598989">same trends</a> have been observed in Aotearoa New Zealand. And whereas some countries embraced pandemic recovery strategies that recognised these gender differences, this <a href="https://theconversation.com/nz-budget-2021-women-left-behind-despite-the-focus-on-well-being-161187">hasn’t been the case</a> in New Zealand.</p>
<p>The gendered abuse of women leaders – former prime minister <a href="https://theconversation.com/jacinda-arderns-resignation-gender-and-the-toll-of-strong-compassionate-leadership-198152">Jacinda Ardern</a> and scientist <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/atthemovies/audio/2018913516/review-ms-information">Siouxsie Wiles</a>, for example – have been well documented. But the experiences of ordinary women, their struggles and strategies to look after themselves and others, have had much less attention.</p>
<h2>Experiences of everyday women</h2>
<p>Our study involved 110 women in Aotearoa New Zealand. We set out to understand how they adapted their everyday practices – work, leisure, exercise, sport – to maintain or regain wellbeing, social connections and a sense of community.</p>
<p>Despite many differences between the women in our sample, there were also shared experiences. We referred to the ruptures in the patterns, rhythms and routines of their lives as “<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gwao.12987">gender arrhythmia</a>”.</p>
<p>The women responded to the psycho-social and physical challenges, such as disrupted sleep or weight changes, by creating counter-rhythms – taking up hobbies, exercising, changing diet.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-pandemics-disproportionate-impact-on-women-is-derailing-decades-of-progress-on-gender-equality-180941">The pandemic’s disproportionate impact on women is derailing decades of progress on gender equality</a>
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<p>The pandemic also prompted many to reflect on how their pre-pandemic routines and rhythms had caused various forms of “alienation”: from their own health and wellbeing, meaningful social connections, ethical and sustainable work practices, and pleasure.</p>
<p>The disruption of the pandemic caused many to reevaluate the importance of work in their lives. As one reflected: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>COVID-19 has made me reassess what is the most important thing. Is it making money? Actually, no, not at all.</p>
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<p>Others were prompted to question and challenge the gendered demands on women to “do everything” and “be everywhere” for everyone:</p>
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<p>I think as women, because we’re so good at multitasking, we just put so much on our plates. I think we need to learn just to say no, because we’re not superhuman. And ultimately, all of this responsibility is weighing us down.</p>
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<p>Our research also highlighted how the pandemic affected women’s relationships with <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1755458623000270?casa_token=KcmGBPnpKLQAAAAA:MmQhDue20CoR0f6lK8rjWfxtBSHsjpzjbJu8tIc03StdccyCvduAs3CUVPwk18rPbklx3_j8DEo">familiar spaces and places</a>. Leaving home for a walk, run or bike ride became important everyday practices that proved highly beneficial for most women’s subjective wellbeing. </p>
<p>Some came to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/01937235231200288">appreciate physical activity</a> for the general joys of movement and connection with people and places, rather than simply to achieve particular goals like fitness or weight loss. </p>
<h2>Special challenges for young women</h2>
<p>As part of our overall project, we also <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13668803.2023.2268818?needAccess=true">focused on 45 young women</a> (aged 16 to 25). This highlighted the importance of recognising how gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic circumstances intersect. </p>
<p>Listening to their <a href="https://www.tepunahamatatini.ac.nz/2023/11/07/the-invisible-glue-holding-families-together-during-the-pandemic/">pandemic stories</a>, we found young women played important roles in supporting their families and communities. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-has-laid-bare-how-much-we-value-womens-work-and-how-little-we-pay-for-it-136042">COVID-19 has laid bare how much we value women's work, and how little we pay for it</a>
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<p>In particular, Māori, Pacific and others from diverse ethnic or migrant backgrounds carried increased responsibilities in the home, including childcare, cleaning, cooking and shopping. While many did so willingly, these extra burdens took a toll on their schooling, mental health and wellbeing.</p>
<p>For many young women, the pandemic was a radical disruption to their everyday lives and routines during a critical stage of identity development. They missed key milestones and events, and crucial phases of education and social development. </p>
<p>Many still grieve for some of those losses. And some are struggling to rebuild social connections, motivation and aspirations.</p>
<p>For example, some described being passionate and aspiring athletes before the pandemic. But social anxieties and body-image issues left over from lockdowns have been hard to shake, and have seen them <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2673-995X/3/3/55">struggle to return</a> to sport. </p>
<h2>The invisible work of migrant women</h2>
<p>We also looked deeply at the experiences of <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-38797-5_9">12 middle-class migrant women</a>, and how prolonged border closures created real anxiety about “not being there” for families overseas. </p>
<p>As one nurse working on the front line of COVID care in NZ explained:</p>
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<p>About a year ago, the cases of COVID in my homeland were increasing so rapidly. My family were not very well and I was depending on social media […] trying to reach out to them. I was really scared at that time, not being able to see your family when they really need you, not being able to be with them.</p>
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<p>Some of the women in our sample also experienced <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14649365.2023.2275761">increased anti-immigrant sentiments</a> which further affected their health and wellbeing – and their feelings of belonging. As one said:</p>
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<p>I’ve become extremely sensitive. I cry about small things. My doctor said “go and get some fresh air, it’s good for you” […] I went outside for a walk, and someone shouted at me, screamed at me. I got terrified for my life. How do you expect me to have wellbeing when no one in the society accepts you?</p>
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<p>This arm of the research suggests a real need for <a href="https://www.belong.org.nz/migrant-experiences-in-the-time-of-covid">investment in policies and support strategies</a> specifically for migrant women and their communities in any future global health emergency.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-zealanders-are-learning-to-live-with-covid-but-does-that-mean-having-to-pay-for-protection-ourselves-219698">New Zealanders are learning to live with COVID – but does that mean having to pay for protection ourselves?</a>
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<h2>Communities of care</h2>
<p>A key feature of our study was the highly creative ways women cultivated “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2043820620934268">communities of care</a>” during the pandemic. Even when they were struggling themselves, they reached out to friends and family – and particularly other women. </p>
<p>The majority of our participants were prompted to think differently about their own health and wellbeing, and what is important in their lives (now and in the future). </p>
<p>Throughout the pandemic, women have worked quietly, behind the scenes, in their families, communities and workplaces, supporting their own and others’ health and wellbeing. This invisible labour is rarely acknowledged or celebrated. </p>
<p>Many still feel the toll of economic hardship, violence and exhaustion. And less tangible feelings of disillusionment remain in a society that has so quickly “moved on” from the pandemic.</p>
<p>Acknowledging and addressing pandemic amnesia – personal and collective – is an important first step in documenting, learning from, and using these experiences to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953622008176">better prepare for future events</a>. Next time, we need to ensure the necessary support is available for those most in need.</p>
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<p><em>The authors wish to acknowledge the other members of the research team: Dr Nikki Barrett, Dr Julie Brice, Dr Allison Jeffrey and Dr Anoosh Soltani.</em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Holly Thorpe receives funding from a Royal Society Te Apārangi James Cook Research Fellowship.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grace O'Leary, Mihi Joy Nemani, and Nida Ahmad do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>COVID was a ‘gendered pandemic’, with women carrying very different burdens to men. A three-year New Zealand research project aimed to overcome the urge to forget, and provide lessons for the future.Holly Thorpe, Professor in Sociology of Sport and Gender, University of WaikatoGrace O'Leary, Research Fellow, University of WaikatoMihi Joy Nemani, Senior Lecturer, Te Huataki Waiora School of Health, University of WaikatoNida Ahmad, Research Fellow, University of WaikatoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1966712022-12-20T10:04:38Z2022-12-20T10:04:38ZWhy do people feel lonely at Christmas? Here’s what the research says<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501348/original/file-20221215-24-wa1hap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=190%2C66%2C5335%2C3628&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/pensive-young-black-woman-celebrating-christmas-1557793724">Shutterstock/Superstar</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Christmas is said to be a time for connecting with friends, family and having fun. But it can also be time of loneliness. Indeed, the results of a 2018 survey looking at loneliness during Christmas time in the UK revealed that 17% of people felt more <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/950868/feelings-of-loneliness-during-christmas-in-uk/">lonely over the festive period</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/tips-for-everyday-living/loneliness/about-loneliness/">Loneliness</a> is a subjective emotion, where we feel our social relationships are insufficient, particularly when compared to our peers. Christmas, with its images and expectations of gift-giving, socialising and excess can often be a time when our own relationships or connections are put under the spotlight. This can lead to feelings of inadequacy if the period doesn’t match up to perceived ideas of what our lives should look like at Christmas.</p>
<p>This year, the cost-of-living crisis will also inevitably make things tougher. Add in the long dark nights and a festive diet of alcohol, sugar and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-festive-season-seriously-messes-with-your-sleep-heres-how-88062">less sleep</a> and it’s not surprising that <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-we-feel-so-blah-after-christmas-172810">Christmas can become a tricky time</a> for many people.</p>
<p>That’s not to say that loneliness is experienced only at Christmas. And as <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886920302555">recent research</a> shows, it’s not just experienced by those in later life. Around 45% of adults in England say they have feelings of loneliness – whether occasionally, sometimes or often. This adds up to more than <a href="https://www.campaigntoendloneliness.org/frequently-asked-questions/how-common-is-loneliness/#:%7E:text=In%2520total%252C%252045%2525%2520of%2520adults%2520feel%2520occasionally%252C%2520sometimes,%25E2%2580%2593%2520a%252049%2525%2520increase%2520in%252010%2520years.%2520%255B2%255D">25 million people</a>.</p>
<h2>Loneliness post-COVID</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/hsc.13746">social isolation</a> enforced by the COVID-19 lockdowns has arguably <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953620307401?via=ihub">exacerbated loneliness</a>. Indeed, research by the Office for National Statistics and the <a href="https://www.campaigntoendloneliness.org/press-release/new-analysis-from-campaign-to-end-loneliness-reveals-people-are-more-chronically-lonely-now-than-before-covid-19/#:%7E:text=3.3%2520million%2520people%2520living%2520in%2520Britain%2520were%2520%25E2%2580%2598chronically,million%2520younger%2520people%2520%2528aged%252016-29%2529%2520were%2520chronically%2520lonely">Campaign to End Loneliness</a>, a charity that works to combat chronic isolation, found that 3.3 million people living in Britain were “chronically lonely” or felt lonely all the time between December 2021 and February 2022.</p>
<p>Loneliness can strike any of us, at anytime. And if not addressed, it can lead to a wider health conditions such as anxiety and depression – it has even been <a href="https://heart.bmj.com/content/102/13/1009.short">linked to cardiovascular disease</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/people-feel-lonelier-in-crowded-cities-but-green-spaces-can-help-173516">People feel lonelier in crowded cities – but green spaces can help</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00223980.2011.613875">Some research</a> shows that young people age 18 to 25 are as, if not more, likely to be as lonely as older people. In most societies loneliness resembles a U-shaped curve with high scores in adolescence, a decline through middle age and then a rise again in old age.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Woman with champagne looking at Zoom of family on laptop." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501351/original/file-20221215-27-z7m391.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501351/original/file-20221215-27-z7m391.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501351/original/file-20221215-27-z7m391.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501351/original/file-20221215-27-z7m391.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501351/original/file-20221215-27-z7m391.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501351/original/file-20221215-27-z7m391.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501351/original/file-20221215-27-z7m391.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Feeling like everyone else is having fun without you can exacerbate feelings of loneliness.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-woman-santa-claus-hat-making-1851469927">Shutterstock/AMJ Fotografia</a></span>
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<p>Young adulthood is often perceived to be a time when people have an active social life as well as an ability to make friends easily. This can exacerbate the social pressures on some young people and their feelings of loneliness – particularly if they think they have less friends than their peers.</p>
<p>As a result, they may find it <a href="https://www.mind.org.uk/news-campaigns/news/third-of-people-too-embarrassed-to-admit-they-are-lonely-at-christmas/">harder to admit to feeling lonely</a> – especially at Christmas – and may feel worse about themselves as a result. </p>
<p>Young adulthood is also a period when various life transitions take place that are known to <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/articles/childrensandyoungpeoplesexperiencesofloneliness/2018">trigger loneliness</a> – such as moving to a new educational institution, starting employment, moving out of the parental home, or <a href="https://systematicreviewsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13643-022-02065-5">having children</a>. </p>
<p>And according to the <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/exkvg4/viceland-uk-census-britain-politics-and-discrimination">2016 Viceland UK Census</a>, a survey of 2500 18 to 34 year-olds by the media company <a href="https://www.vice.com/en">Vice</a>, loneliness is the number one fear for young people today, ranking ahead of <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/nnyk37/what-vice-readers-fear-the-most-hannah-ewens-love-loneliness">losing a home or a job</a>.</p>
<h2>It affects everyone differently</h2>
<p>Other studies have drawn attention to factors that can trigger loneliness regardless of age. One study for example shows that people who identify as a sexual minority report higher ratings of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19359705.2021.1957742">loneliness than heterosexuals</a>.</p>
<p>Loneliness is also one of the <a href="https://www.campaigntoendloneliness.org/loneliness-refugees-migrants/">key issues facing refugees and migrants</a>. In a 2014 study 58% of migrants and refugees described loneliness and isolation as their biggest challenge while living in London. Another study, meanwhile, highlights that social disconnection is an important determinant of <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10903-022-01422-9">mental health and suicide risk</a> among migrant populations in English-speaking countries.</p>
<p>Research has also shown that being a carer can lead to loneliness. Caring responsibilities can reduce time for maintaining social connections with friends, work colleagues and other family members. Carers UK, a national charity that supports unpaid carers, <a href="https://www.carersuk.org/for-professionals/policy/policy-library/alone-caring">reports</a> that eight out of ten carers have felt lonely or isolated as a result of caring and that most don’t feel able to talk about this with their friends. </p>
<p>Carers are not all old either, there are an estimated <a href="https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/what-we-do/our-work/supporting-young-carers/facts-about-young-carers">800,000</a> young carers aged five to 17 in England. And Christmas can be an especially difficult time for these young people who are most likely having a very different festive experience to their friends at school.</p>
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<p>So as you enjoy your festive shopping, eating, drinking and partying, spare a thought for the many people around the world who will be feeling lonely this Christmas and indeed throughout the year. And if you feel a little lonely or flat from time to time during the holidays, don’t panic, it’s very normal.</p>
<p>If you know someone who’ll be spending a lot of time alone this Christmas or who is likely to feel lonely, there are things you can do to help. Sometimes the smallest of gestures can make people feel less isolated: a smile or greeting to a passer-by, a phone call, text or Christmas card to a friend who you haven’t had contact with for a while. </p>
<p>But it’s also important to remember that we can all feel lonely from time to time and that it’s ok to not always feel happy and filled with fun – even at Christmas.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196671/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Ratcliffe receives funding from Ageing Better to conduct research on loneliness at the Centre for Loneliness Studies, Sheffield Hallam University. He previously worked on research into loneliness funded by the economic and social research council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Wigfield does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Christmas, along with other public holidays, is certainly a time when people can feel more lonely.Andrea Wigfield, Professor and Director, Centre for Loneliness Studies, Sheffield Hallam UniversityJohn Ratcliffe, Researcher in the Centre for Loneliness Studies, Sheffield Hallam UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1855862022-06-23T20:08:09Z2022-06-23T20:08:09ZWe asked the public about being lonely during lockdowns. For many, Zoom calls weren’t enough – and some still haven’t recovered<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470476/original/file-20220623-51187-frq711.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=35%2C80%2C5937%2C3904&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite widespread access to social media and videoconferencing technology, many Australians experienced heightened loneliness during COVID lockdowns, and continue to do so.</p>
<p>We surveyed more than 2,000 Australians during 2020-21 about their experiences during and after lockdown, for <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajs4.223">research</a> published today in the Australian Journal of Social Issues. Participants came from every state and territory and ranged from ages 18 to 88. About two-thirds were female.</p>
<p>We captured respondents’ detailed experiences of lockdowns in their own words. From this we gained insight into people’s feelings of loneliness in the context of digital media use. </p>
<p>While many have struggled, the impacts haven’t been felt equally by all.</p>
<h2>Who was lonely, and stayed lonely after lockdowns?</h2>
<p>The pandemic opened up new “inequalities” in loneliness, by creating barriers to socialising for several types of people. These difficulties remained even after lockdowns ended, as they had higher rates of loneliness months later. </p>
<p>For example, 49% of men and 47% of women agreed they had been lonely “at least some of the time” (a minimum 1-2 days per week) during lockdown. But this dropped to 40% of men and 42% of women in the months after lockdown, opening up a gendered “loneliness gap”.</p>
<p>Men bounced back quicker when activities such as sports and recreation resumed. This makes sense when you consider men are more likely to base <a href="https://theconversation.com/lost-touch-with-friends-during-lockdown-heres-how-to-reconnect-and-let-go-of-toxic-ones-172853">friendships on such activities</a> than women are. </p>
<p>We also found people with a physical disability, single people (not in a relationship), those with low incomes, and those lacking strong social ties before COVID had higher levels of loneliness during lockdowns – and persistent loneliness afterwards.</p>
<h2>Why did they stay lonely?</h2>
<p>Loneliness was extensive among young people who experienced COVID‐induced isolation. They missed out on formative opportunities to make friends (such as starting university), travel overseas or enter the workforce for the first time. Such interruptions may correct themselves as regular routines resume. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A young graduating woman sits in front of her laptop in her robe, hat and certificate in hand" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470465/original/file-20220623-51620-p1ig4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470465/original/file-20220623-51620-p1ig4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470465/original/file-20220623-51620-p1ig4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470465/original/file-20220623-51620-p1ig4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470465/original/file-20220623-51620-p1ig4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470465/original/file-20220623-51620-p1ig4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470465/original/file-20220623-51620-p1ig4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">During lockdowns many students had to graduate online – missing out on a major life experience.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-asian-university-graduate-woman-graduation-1935378403">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>A potentially more serious problems is social networks having diminished during lockdown. There was a reported “pruning” of friends, where people chose to socialise online with those they were already close to, at the expense of more distant and diverse friendships. </p>
<p>One respondent noted: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I spend more time with close friends. Less time with ‘acquaintances’. More time with reliable colleagues. Less time with ‘time‐wasters’.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The problem with this is it takes time to rebuild extensive networks, which likely contributes to more protracted <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Loneliness_the_Experience_of_Emotional_a.html?id=KuibQgAACAAJ&redir_esc=y">“social” loneliness</a>. It may also propagate intolerance towards those more distant types of people that we cull, as shown in studies of COVID-induced loneliness <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jcop.22732">in rural NSW communities</a>.</p>
<p>It was also difficult for those who found themselves being “pruned”. These people, many of them men, became lonelier when they realised much of their existing friendships weren’t as close as they’d thought. </p>
<p>Many people felt they and others had lost the habits of social interaction during COVID, making it difficult or impossible. </p>
<p>One middle-aged male said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Feels like life and society have permanently changed even after most of the pandemic has ended […] You can make plans and act towards them, but they can (and usually do) come undone in moments. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Such lost habits may take substantial time to be regained.</p>
<h2>Some people made the most of what they had</h2>
<p>COVID exposed gaps in our digital preparedness. Those who already had extensive or active online networks described an easier transition to lockdown. One older female respondent noted she: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>for decades had many online relationships all over the world. This has facilitated my ease at moving to online. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This reflects <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1745691617713052?journalCode=ppsa">research findings</a> that online interaction that supports existing connections and stimulates new ones can help reduce loneliness.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/does-social-media-make-us-more-or-less-lonely-depends-on-how-you-use-it-128468">Does social media make us more or less lonely? Depends on how you use it</a>
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<p>Some people with physical disabilities celebrated digital interaction. As one person said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I am an equal on Zoom.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is in keeping with research finding positive impacts of videoconferencing on loneliness <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21069600/">for frail older people</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An elderly man sits in front of his laptop looking disappointed" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470460/original/file-20220623-13-hsv69v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470460/original/file-20220623-13-hsv69v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470460/original/file-20220623-13-hsv69v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470460/original/file-20220623-13-hsv69v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470460/original/file-20220623-13-hsv69v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470460/original/file-20220623-13-hsv69v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470460/original/file-20220623-13-hsv69v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Elderly people found it difficult to connect digitally during lockdowns, making them feel distant from loved ones.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/lonely-depressed-senior-man-connecting-night-1430498084">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>Zoom couldn’t fill the gap</h2>
<p>However, despite some positive experiences, our work found digital contact was overall not a sufficient substitute for lost physical contact and social needs.</p>
<p>As one female respondent said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Online alternatives help a lot, but it’s not the same and not enough.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Some lacked digital literacy, and described a difficult transition to videoconferencing: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I hate chatting ‘cause I’m a slow typer. I hate Skype, in part because I hate seeing myself on screen and hate other people seeing me.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Having to “go digital” made pre-existing anxieties worse for some, while others felt left behind:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It has been an isolating experience because I keep hearing how others are always staying connected via these methods.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Many people simply missed the “physicality” of face-to-face interactions; the “atmosphere” of public spaces, the chance to “dress up”, and physical intimacy and contact.</p>
<h2>Connection in a post-COVID world</h2>
<p>Still, many fell back on the ease of digital communication compared to “difficult” face-to-face encounters even after lockdown lifted. One middle-aged female said real-life interactions now felt “tiring”. </p>
<p>This is concerning because it points to the seductive power of digital communication as a “substitute” for physical interaction. </p>
<p>Research shows online interaction can <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1745691617713052?journalCode=ppsa">increase loneliness</a> when it fails to support (often more meaningful) existing relationships, and instead “displaces” them with less meaningful or shallow digital interactions.</p>
<p>The internet might improve life for those who can’t physically interact due to remoteness or physical incapacity. But if the convenience of digital communication displaces regular (often higher-quality) interactions, it could exacerbate isolation and loneliness.</p>
<p>With lockdowns having receded, we should look at <a href="https://theconversation.com/lost-touch-with-friends-during-lockdown-heres-how-to-reconnect-and-let-go-of-toxic-ones-172853">ways to reconnect physically with friends</a>, rather than relying increasingly on digital means to bridge the loneliness gap.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185586/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This story is part of The Conversation's Breaking the Cycle series, which is about escaping cycles of disadvantage. It is supported by a philanthropic grant from the Paul Ramsay Foundation</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marlee Bower is Academic Lead, Australia's Mental Health Think Tank, which is funded philanthropically by the BHP Foundation. She is a board member of The Haymarket Foundation.</span></em></p>We found men managed to bounce back quicker after lockdowns ended, in part due to their involvement in sporting and recreational activities.Roger Patulny, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of WollongongMarlee Bower, Research Fellow, Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1401342020-06-17T12:19:23Z2020-06-17T12:19:23ZQuarantine bubbles – when done right – limit coronavirus risk and help fight loneliness<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342259/original/file-20200616-23213-14003c2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=44%2C59%2C4933%2C3157&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Quaranteams offer a way to limit the risk of infection while also maintaining social contacts and mental health.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/family-in-medical-masks-stands-in-a-royalty-free-illustration/1215751873?adppopup=true"> Oqvector / iStock Getty Images Plus via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>After three months of lockdowns, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/26/opinion/coronavirus-quarantine-bubbles.html">many people in the U.S.</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-53031844">around the world</a> are turning to quarantine bubbles, pandemic pods or quaranteams in an effort to balance the risks of the pandemic with the emotional and social needs of life.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.american.edu/cas/faculty/mhawkins.cfm">I am an epidemiologist</a> and a mother of four, three of whom are teenagers in the throes of their risk-taking years. As the country grapples with how to navigate new risks in the world, my kids and I are doing the same. </p>
<p>When done carefully, the research shows that quarantine bubbles can effectively limit the risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 while allowing people to have much needed social interactions with their friends and family. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342295/original/file-20200616-23213-1vx54xw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342295/original/file-20200616-23213-1vx54xw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342295/original/file-20200616-23213-1vx54xw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342295/original/file-20200616-23213-1vx54xw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342295/original/file-20200616-23213-1vx54xw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342295/original/file-20200616-23213-1vx54xw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342295/original/file-20200616-23213-1vx54xw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Quaranteams are founded on the idea that people can interact freely within a group, but that group stays isolated from other people as much as possible.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/family-toasting-drinks-during-birthday-party-royalty-free-image/1187298454?adppopup=true">Klaus Vedfelt/Digital Vision via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Reduce risk if you can’t eliminate it</h2>
<p>A quaranteam is a small group of people who form their own social circle to quarantine together – and a perfect example of a harm reduction strategy. </p>
<p>Harm reduction is a pragmatic public health concept that explicitly acknowledges that all risk cannot be eliminated, so it encourages the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10550887.2015.1059651">reduction of risk</a>. Harm reduction approaches also take into consideration the intersection of biological, psychological and social factors that influence both health and behavior. </p>
<p>For example, abstinence-only education <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2017.05.031">doesn’t work all that well</a>. Safe-sex education, on the other hand, seeks to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/01.naj.0000412622.87884.a3">limit risk, not eliminate it</a>, and is better at reducing teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection.</p>
<p>Quarantine bubbles are a way to limit the risk of getting or transmitting SARS-CoV-2 while expanding social interaction.</p>
<h2>Mental health matters too</h2>
<p>Staying indoors, avoiding all contact with friends or family and having food and groceries delivered would be the best way to limit your risk of catching SARS-CoV-2. But the risks of the pandemic extend beyond the harm from infection. Health encompasses <a href="https://www.who.int/about/who-we-are/constitution">mental as well as physical well-being</a>.</p>
<p>The negative mental health impacts of the pandemic are already starting to become evident. A recent <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.9740">survey of U.S. adults</a> found that 13.6% reported symptoms of serious psychological distress, up from 3.9% in 2018. A quarter of people 18 to 29 years old reported serious psychological distress, the highest levels of all ages groups. Many people are experiencing <a href="https://adaa.org/learn-from-us/from-the-experts/blog-posts/consumer/covid-19-lockdown-guide-how-manage-anxiety-and">anxiety and depression</a> due to the pandemic or were already living with these challenges. Loneliness certainly <a href="https://www.jhsph.edu/covid-19/articles/how-to-prevent-social-isolation-from-making-loneliness-worse.html">doesn’t help</a>.</p>
<p>Loneliness and social isolation increase the risk for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2014.0114">depression and anxiety</a> and can also lead to increases in the risk for serious physical diseases like <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2015-308790">coronary heart disease, stroke</a> and premature death. </p>
<p>Quaranteams, therefore, are not simply a convenient idea because they let people see their friends and family. Isolation poses serious health risks – both physically and mentally – that social bubbles can help alleviate while improving social well-being and quality of life.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342275/original/file-20200616-23266-31uopp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342275/original/file-20200616-23266-31uopp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342275/original/file-20200616-23266-31uopp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342275/original/file-20200616-23266-31uopp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342275/original/file-20200616-23266-31uopp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342275/original/file-20200616-23266-31uopp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342275/original/file-20200616-23266-31uopp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342275/original/file-20200616-23266-31uopp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Managing a virus is all about managing human interactions, and quarantine bubbles work to insulate groups from risk.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/people-and-modern-technology-connection-royalty-free-image/1081167134?adppopup=true&uiloc=thumbnail_same_series_adp">Gremlin/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Social network theory shows that quaranteams work</h2>
<p>Social relationships enhance well-being and mental health but they also act as a vehicle for infection transmission. As people around the world emerge from lockdowns, this is the conundrum: How do we increase social interaction while limiting the risk of spread?</p>
<p>A recent study used <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118783764.wbieme0092">social network theory</a> – how information spreads among groups of people – and infectious disease models to see if quaranteams would work in this pandemic. </p>
<p>To do that, the researchers built computer models of social interactions to measure how the virus spread. They built a model of typical behavior, of typical behavior but with only half the number of interactions and of three different social distancing approaches that also had half the number of interactions as normal. </p>
<p>The first social distancing scenario grouped people by characteristics – people would only see people of a similar age, for example. The second scenario grouped people by local communities and limited inter-community interaction. The last scenario limited interactions to small social groups of mixed characteristics from various locations – i.e. quarantine bubbles. These bubbles could have people of all ages and from various neighborhoods, but those people would only interact with each other.</p>
<p>All of the social distancing measures reduced the severity of the pandemic and were also better than simply reducing interactions at random, but the quaranteam approach <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0898-6">was the most effective at flattening the curve</a>. Compared to no social distancing, quarantine bubbles would delay the peak of infections by 37%, decrease the height of the peak by 60% and result in 30% fewer infected individuals overall.</p>
<p>Other countries are starting to incorporate quaranteams in their prevention guidelines now that infection rates are low and contact tracing programs are in place. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-53031844">England is the latest country</a> to announce quaranteam guidance with their support bubble policy. </p>
<p>New Zealand implemented a <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/05/new-zealand-quarantine-bubble-concept-america.html">quarantine bubble strategy in early May</a> and it <a href="https://www.theweek.co.uk/coronavirus/106976/how-social-bubbles-helped-new-zealand-beat-the-coronavirus">seems to have worked</a>. Additionally, a recent survey of 2,500 adults in England and New Zealand found a <a href="http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/104421/">high degree of support for the policies</a> and high degree of motivation to comply.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342253/original/file-20200616-23213-16oep2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342253/original/file-20200616-23213-16oep2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342253/original/file-20200616-23213-16oep2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342253/original/file-20200616-23213-16oep2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342253/original/file-20200616-23213-16oep2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342253/original/file-20200616-23213-16oep2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342253/original/file-20200616-23213-16oep2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342253/original/file-20200616-23213-16oep2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People in a quarantine bubble need to agree on how much risk is acceptable and establish a set of rules.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/grandparents-and-grandchildren-meeting-in-park-royalty-free-image/1224668511?adppopup=true&uiloc=thumbnail_more_search_results_adp">Imgorthand/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How to build a quarantine bubble</h2>
<p>To make an effective quaranteam, here’s what you need to do. </p>
<p>First, everyone must agree to follow the rules and be honest and open about their actions. Individual behavior can put the whole team at risk and the foundation of a quaranteam is trust. Teams should also talk in advance about what to do if someone breaks the rules or is exposed to an infected person. If someone starts to show symptoms, everyone should agree to self-isolate for 14 days. </p>
<p>Second, everyone must decide how much risk is acceptable and establish rules that reflect this decision. For example, some people might feel OK about having a close family member visit but others may not. Our family has agreed that we only visit with friends outside, not inside, and that everyone must wear masks at all times. </p>
<p>Finally, people need to actually follow the rules, comply with physical distancing outside of the quaranteam and be forthcoming if they think they may have been exposed.</p>
<p>Additionally, communication should be ongoing and dynamic. The realities of the pandemic are changing at a rapid pace and what may be OK one day might be too risky for some the next.</p>
<h2>The risks of joining a quaranteam</h2>
<p>Any increase in social contact is inherently more risky right now. There are two important ideas in particular that a person should consider when thinking about how much risk they’re willing to take.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342254/original/file-20200616-23227-hdrltu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342254/original/file-20200616-23227-hdrltu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342254/original/file-20200616-23227-hdrltu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=676&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342254/original/file-20200616-23227-hdrltu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=676&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342254/original/file-20200616-23227-hdrltu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=676&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342254/original/file-20200616-23227-hdrltu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=850&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342254/original/file-20200616-23227-hdrltu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=850&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342254/original/file-20200616-23227-hdrltu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=850&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">You must be smart and honest when determining how much risk you’re willing to take and who is affected.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/scales-of-justice-royalty-free-image/482675475?adppopup=true&uiloc=thumbnail_similar_images_adp">mgkaya/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The first is <a href="https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2607.201595">asymptomatic spread</a>. Current data suggests that at any given time, anywhere between 20% and <a href="https://doi.org/10.7326/M20-3012">45% of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 are asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic</a> and able to transmit the virus to others. The best way to know if someone is infected or not is to get tested, so some people might consider requiring testing before agreeing to join a quaranteam.</p>
<p>The second thing to consider is that consequences of getting sick are not the same for everyone. If you or someone you live with has another health condition – like asthma, diabetes, a heart condition or a compromised immune system – the assessment of risk and reward from a quaranteam should change. The consequences of a high-risk person developing COVID-19 are <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-at-higher-risk.html">much more serious</a>.</p>
<p>One of the greatest difficulties facing both scientists and the public alike is the uncertainty about this virus and what lies ahead. But some things are known. If individuals are informed and sincere in their quaranteam efforts and follow the regular guidance of social distancing, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/cloth-face-cover.html">mask wearing</a> and enthusiastic hand-washing, quaranteams can offer a robust and structured middle ground approach to manage risk while experiencing the joy and benefits of friends and family. These are things we could all benefit from these days, and for now, quaranteams may be the best step forward as we emerge from this pandemic together.</p>
<p>[<em>You need to understand the coronavirus pandemic, and we can help.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=upper-coronavirus-help">Read The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140134/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melissa Hawkins receives funding from USDA.
</span></em></p>People are turning to quarantine bubbles as a way to see friends and family while limiting the risk from the coronavirus. Research shows that this can work, but it’s not easy to be in a quaranteam.Melissa Hawkins, Professor of Public Health, Director of Public Health Scholars Program, American UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1380092020-05-13T20:11:59Z2020-05-13T20:11:59ZIs isolation a feeling?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334186/original/file-20200512-66703-hjppsr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=53%2C8%2C6000%2C3979&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sam Marx/Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>I am feeling isolated. Is this a state, or an emotion? Rather than getting into the semantics of language, I will ask another question: what does isolation feel like?</p>
<p>Isolation feels like being <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2011-08649-001">stuck on the couch</a> despite having time for a walk. Isolation feels like <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666315000768">comfort eating</a> nachos and box wine. </p>
<p>Our bodies are tired. Our minds slip and skid between blank boredom and anxious <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/5/1729">overthinking</a>. What is happening to us, here in our homes, away from the routines and interactions that used to shape our days?</p>
<p>I am feeling isolated. Scholars of emotion talk about feelings as <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1468-5914.00135">judgements</a> – our considered response to what’s happening. These judgements tint our experience as we live it: like the transferred epithets of Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster, “pronging a <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=HC-OBeh2d3sC&pg=PA138&lpg=PA138&dq=wodehouse+pronging+a+moody+forkful&source=bl&ots=-jlwqbbiST&sig=ACfU3U1jjr3u00Sa3Ngax_5ioUjOj6lzeQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwimxMnkmqvpAhUF73MBHa9EAf0Q6AEwA3oECAYQAQ#v=onepage&q=wodehouse%20pronging%20a%20moody%20forkful&f=false">moody forkful</a>” of eggs, or “balancing a <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=iJwnDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT226&lpg=PT226&dq=wodehouse+thoughtful+lump+of+sugar&source=bl&ots=NCQB0-OyXU&sig=ACfU3U3l6CVTHqRvcVseIz-ZWEYMv2EDDg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwinxI7QmqvpAhVVjuYKHRubDisQ6AEwA3oECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=wodehouse%20thoughtful%20lump%20of%20sugar&f=false">thoughtful lump of sugar</a>” on his teaspoon. Experience reaches us through these filters of judgement. </p>
<p>This morning I made myself a lonely piece of toast and am writing this article drinking a grateful-for-free-childcare cup of tea.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334188/original/file-20200512-66669-hjqh3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334188/original/file-20200512-66669-hjqh3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334188/original/file-20200512-66669-hjqh3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334188/original/file-20200512-66669-hjqh3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334188/original/file-20200512-66669-hjqh3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334188/original/file-20200512-66669-hjqh3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334188/original/file-20200512-66669-hjqh3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Would you like a grateful-for-free-childcare cup of tea?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kira auf der Heide/Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Every lonely person is lonely in their own way</h2>
<p>Some of the effects of isolation are <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2008-07715-005">common to all</a> human beings, across times and places. Humans have evolved as communal animals <a href="https://www.elsevier.com/books/the-psychological-journey-to-and-from-loneliness/rokach/978-0-12-815618-6">living in</a> “families, tribes, and communities”. We <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21219047">feel</a> “the pain of social isolation and the rewards of social connection”. </p>
<p>Beyond these human constants, our emotional experiences are powerfully shaped by our individual circumstances. Our communal and personal histories affect our expectations of life and our responses to events. In this sense, your feeling of isolation is different to mine. Like Tolstoy’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-anna-karenina-86475">unhappy families</a>, each of us is feeling this crisis in our own way. </p>
<p>Medical researchers of isolation note this recursive flow of emotion: symptoms like poor sleep and high blood pressure correlated not with measures of patients’ objective isolation, but their <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3166409/">perceived isolation</a>. </p>
<p>One person’s agonising loneliness is another’s boring staycation. We are as isolated as we feel.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334189/original/file-20200512-66669-qn2m3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334189/original/file-20200512-66669-qn2m3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=966&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334189/original/file-20200512-66669-qn2m3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=966&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334189/original/file-20200512-66669-qn2m3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=966&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334189/original/file-20200512-66669-qn2m3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1214&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334189/original/file-20200512-66669-qn2m3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1214&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334189/original/file-20200512-66669-qn2m3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1214&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Is this a place of loneliness, or a place of staycation joy?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sven Brandsma/Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This does not mean our feelings aren’t real. They are, in fact, the only reality we can know. Is there a meaningful difference between asking “How are you?” and “How are you feeling?”</p>
<h2>Full bodied feeling</h2>
<p>Our feelings are experienced by our whole selves: bodies, minds, emotions, <a href="https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/01/24/coronavirus-the-psychological-effects-of-quarantining-a-city/">all intertwined</a>. </p>
<p>We feel the absence of human touch, we feel anxiety as we obsess over daily statistics, we feel exhausted by shopping trips that feel like ventures into no-man’s-land, we feel grief at the horrific headlines of death, and frustration at government responses. We feel loss and confusion about our about our <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057%2F9780230305625">identity and value</a> as <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-11/coronavirus-sudden-unemployment-and-impact-on-identity/12206868">jobs disappear</a>. </p>
<p>Those who contract COVID-19 report <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/disaster-medicine-and-public-health-preparedness/article/is-there-a-case-for-quarantine-perspectives-from-sars-to-ebola/451C41BD5A980A45FFA9F9AE8670CC85">not only</a> fear of dying, but boredom and anger at being isolated from family and friends. </p>
<p>We are feeling isolated. Despite our Tolstoyan uniqueness, we find comfort in shared feelings. We share memes about interminable Zoom meetings, or homeschooling, or day drinking. We feel seen, heard, understood – less isolated. These are called <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0003-066X.55.2.205">affiliative behaviours</a> and they are a powerful coping strategy for all kinds of crises. Somehow our suffering is more bearable if another human being knows how we feel, and feels it too.</p>
<p>Connecting with one another, and feeling that we are in this together, can mitigate some of the pain of isolation. Sufferers during previous pandemics who felt their isolation was serving an altruistic goal of protecting their neighbours <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19497162">reported less negative emotions</a> about isolation. </p>
<p>Political exiles have, throughout history, found ways to endure isolation. Early modern English nuns in exiled European convents <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/685784">drew upon antique history</a> to comfort themselves, identifying with Biblical stories of suffering that finally resolve in homecoming and restored community. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334193/original/file-20200512-66675-ckeyso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334193/original/file-20200512-66675-ckeyso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334193/original/file-20200512-66675-ckeyso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334193/original/file-20200512-66675-ckeyso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334193/original/file-20200512-66675-ckeyso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334193/original/file-20200512-66675-ckeyso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334193/original/file-20200512-66675-ckeyso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Exiled nuns drew upon Biblical stories of suffering for comfort.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anton Hansch c1876/Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Prisoners in solitary confinement have <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Health_and_Human_Rights_in_a_Changing_Wo.html?id=kJXM_eptt0MC&redir_esc=y">relied</a> on simple things like sunlight and human voices on the radio to keep the worst at bay. </p>
<p>They are feeling isolated. Isolation feels like being alone but it also feels like reaching beyond our usual spheres, feeling new empathy with people who were strangers before. </p>
<p>Isolation is a long-term state for many. From <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550857910001002">professional women</a> in male-dominated fields, to caregivers and those in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/153331759601100305">remote communities</a>, to religious and queer <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10894160.2010.490503">minorities</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1755458617300397">Asylum seekers</a> in detention <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1323238X.2017.1314805">report</a> deep feelings of <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ejsp.2543">isolation</a> and invisibility. Their <a href="http://www.freedomfromtorture.org/real-voices/six-refugee-poems-a-unique-insight-into-the-life-of-refugees-and-asylum-seekers">poems</a> open up for us in new ways now.</p>
<p>New parents, especially mothers, experience isolation with feelings <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15066113">familiar</a> to many of us right now: “powerlessness, insufficiency, guilt, loss, exhaustion, ambivalence, resentment and anger”. Those who are young, or poor, or single, are <a href="http://asistdl.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/asi.24037">especially</a> at risk of feeling isolated, overwhelmed and worried. </p>
<p>In our empathy we are connected across social and economic gaps.</p>
<h2>Emotional force</h2>
<p>We are feeling isolated. Now, our shared emotions become a central part of how we <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2010.00908.x">make sense</a> of the crisis. </p>
<p>Shared, collective emotion can be a strong driver of <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118900772.etrds0155">collective activity</a>. Enough shared emotion can cause us to feel like a <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-theory/article/feeling-like-a-state-social-emotion-and-identity/C14A88754EF067C70A32B8BEEBBC44B4">unified nation</a>, our common humanity stronger than our superficial differences. Conversely, emotional sparks can create <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/10/ten-arrested-and-police-officer-injured-at-protest-against-victorias-covid-19-lockdown-laws">political cliques</a> who cohere around shared anger towards other groups. </p>
<p>Scholars of emotion describe emotions as a <a href="https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/emotions-and-social-relations/book237448">force</a>, not only felt within, but acting upon the external world. Emotions <em>do things</em>. Big, collective emotions do big things. We are only beginning to discover what isolation is doing to us.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138009/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carly Osborn previously received funding from the ARC.</span></em></p>Emotions and feelings can be thought of as judgments: considered responses to what is happening.Carly Osborn, Visiting Research Fellow, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1380142020-05-13T19:59:07Z2020-05-13T19:59:07ZNot all doom and gloom: even in a pandemic, mixed emotions are more common than negative ones<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333929/original/file-20200511-49589-knowam.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C36%2C6133%2C4052&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1585536793918-bc027b91828c?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjEyMDd9&auto=format&fit=crop&w=2702&q=80">Patrick Fore / Unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Much has been written on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on <a href="https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/dealing-with-feelings-about-covid-19">negative emotions</a>, such as rising <a href="https://theconversation.com/cant-sleep-and-feeling-anxious-about-coronavirus-youre-not-alone-134407">anxiety</a> and the loneliness of self-isolation. </p>
<p>But while things may seem all doom and gloom, new data reveals it’s surprisingly rare for a person to experience <em>purely negative</em> emotions. More commonly, people are instead experiencing <a href="https://lens.monash.edu/@politics-society/2020/03/24/1379876/covid-19-emotional-and-behavioural-reactions-to-the-unexpected">mixed emotions</a>, even during the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/social-distancing-can-make-you-lonely-heres-how-to-stay-connected-when-youre-in-lockdown-133693">Social distancing can make you lonely. Here's how to stay connected when you're in lockdown</a>
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</p>
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<h2>What are mixed emotions?</h2>
<p>Psychologists have <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1981-25062-001">traditionally</a> viewed emotions as falling along a single dimension, ranging from positive (such as happy or excited) to negative (such as sad or anxious). This implies at any given moment we feel “good” or “bad”, but not both. Positive and negative emotions have even been said to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9990843">mutually inhibit</a> each other – so if you are enjoying your day but receive some bad news, your positive mood is supposedly replaced by a negative one. </p>
<p>However, an <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2014-23134-003">alternative view</a>
suggests positive and negative emotions vary independently, and can therefore occur simultaneously. This allows for the experience of “mixed emotions”, such as feeling both happy and sad, or nervous but excited, at the same time. </p>
<p>There is now <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00428/full">extensive evidence</a> for the existence of mixed emotions. And new data reveals they may be surprisingly common. </p>
<h2>Mixed emotions are more common than purely negative ones</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/per.2264">recent study</a> led by Kate Barford (an author of this article) examined how mixed emotions arise in day-to-day life. Across three participant samples, Barford and her colleagues found mixed emotions typically emerge when negative emotions intensify (such as following a negative event), and blend with ongoing positive emotions. </p>
<p>Thus, bad feelings do not always extinguish positive ones, like flicking off a light switch. Rather, they more often transform a positive mood into mixed emotions.</p>
<p>Intriguingly, the study also found <em>purely</em> negative emotions (the absence of any concurrent positive emotions) are surprisingly rare. In all three samples, participants reported purely negative emotions less than 1% of the time during one to two weeks of daily life. In contrast, mixed emotions were reported up to 36% of the time. </p>
<p>This shows our negative emotions are rarely so strong that they overwhelm our positive ones, at least during everyday circumstances.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333920/original/file-20200511-49584-ksqjs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333920/original/file-20200511-49584-ksqjs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333920/original/file-20200511-49584-ksqjs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333920/original/file-20200511-49584-ksqjs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333920/original/file-20200511-49584-ksqjs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333920/original/file-20200511-49584-ksqjs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333920/original/file-20200511-49584-ksqjs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mixed emotions are much more common than purely negative feelings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Adrian Swancar/Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Mixed emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic</h2>
<p>Currently, most of us are not facing everyday circumstances. As the coronavirus spreads around the globe many nations have gone into lockdown, and most of us are wondering when life might return to normal. You might think negative emotions would dominate during such ominous times. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-three-ways-the-crisis-may-permanently-change-our-lives-133954">Coronavirus: three ways the crisis may permanently change our lives</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>To find out, we <a href="https://osf.io/72md9/?view_only=7dc3e33d77da4f2aa9add2a4713121af">surveyed</a> 854 Australian residents about their emotional experiences in late March, as government restrictions were introduced. In line with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/04/half-of-british-adults-felt-anxious-about-covid-19-lockdown">widespread reporting</a>, we found 72% of our sample were indeed experiencing negative emotions. </p>
<p>However, almost all of these people also reported feeling positive emotions, such as joy and contentment. And only 3% of our sample reported <em>purely</em> negative emotions as the crisis unfolded. In comparison, around 70% of people reported feeling mixed emotions – much higher than previously found by Barford and colleagues.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333915/original/file-20200511-49569-h878yr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333915/original/file-20200511-49569-h878yr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=265&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333915/original/file-20200511-49569-h878yr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=265&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333915/original/file-20200511-49569-h878yr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=265&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333915/original/file-20200511-49569-h878yr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333915/original/file-20200511-49569-h878yr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333915/original/file-20200511-49569-h878yr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This chart shows the prevalence of mixed emotions, alongside purely positive and negative emotions, in a representative sample of 854 Australians aged 18-89 (about 44% males and 56% females). Data was collected by the authors in early April, 2020.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The high rate of mixed emotions during the COVID-19 crisis may be the result of increased negative emotions that blend with positive ones – as Barford and her colleagues found.</p>
<p>Mixed emotions might also arise from <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23717292">conflicted thoughts and feelings</a> about this predicament. For instance, we might dislike social distancing, but approve of it for the sake of our collective health. Or we might enjoy the novelty and flexibility of altered working arrangements (such as working from home), even though they can be disruptive. </p>
<p>Indeed, almost half of the participants in our sample reported they enjoyed tackling some of the challenges of lockdown.</p>
<h2>Who experiences mixed emotions?</h2>
<p>Our emotions are not determined simply by our circumstances, but <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167298243005">also our personalities</a>. </p>
<p>In the study by Barford and her colleagues, individuals scoring lower on a personality trait called “<a href="https://psychcentral.com/lib/the-big-five-personality-traits/">emotional stability</a>” experienced more mixed emotions. This was because these individuals were more susceptible to increases in negative emotion, which blended with ongoing positive ones to create an overall bittersweet experience. </p>
<p>This same finding emerged in our survey in the context of COVID-19. We found the personality trait of low emotional stability was a stronger predictor of mixed emotions than other situational and demographic factors. These factors included age (younger people experienced more mixed emotions) and the extent of disruption to one’s day-to-day activities. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/personalities-that-thrive-in-isolation-and-what-we-can-all-learn-from-time-alone-135307">Personalities that thrive in isolation and what we can all learn from time alone</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Could mixed emotions be helpful?</h2>
<p>Interestingly, psychologists think mixed emotions may have some benefits. Specifically, whereas purely negative emotions can lead us to <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1990-13921-001">disengage from our goals</a>, mixed emotions may prepare us to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8721.00031">respond to uncertain situations in flexible ways</a>, such as re-proritising our work projects, or socialising via Zoom instead of in person.</p>
<p>There is even evidence the experience of mixed emotions may <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886917300144">cushion the impact of uncertainty on our wellbeing</a>. </p>
<p>So, while sentiments of fear and sadness are dominating the headlines, the high prevalence of mixed emotions during this pandemic may be good news for our mental health.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138014/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A survey conducted in early April reveals that, even in lockdown, fewer than 3% of people were feeling only negative emotions.Luke Smillie, Associate Professor, The University of MelbourneJeromy Anglim, Lecturer in Research Methods in Psychology, Deakin UniversityKate A. Barford, Associate lecturer, Deakin UniversityPeter O'Connor, Professor, Business and Management, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.