Even in discussions that include exhortations to build strong connections and communities, loneliness and isolation are treated as individual conditions, and references to community easily coexist with talk of genetic hardwiring, the role of the prefrontal cortex, and the ways in which neural mechanisms might generate feelings of loneliness. Health and longevity are the ends to which remedial action is directed and by which outcomes are evaluated. These appear to be the values that really matter, and the evidently urgent need to address the epidemic flows from concerns with this harm and the costs it imposes on society.

In discussions of loneliness and how to “solve” this problem, virtually the entire focus is on its harmful consequences for health and longevity. surgeon general, reports that loneliness and isolation are “associated with a reduction in lifespan similar to that caused by smoking 15 cigarettes a day and even greater than that associated with obesity.” Our “perceived social isolation,” the two neuroscientists write, “can still put us in self-preservation mode,” a “hangover” from our evolutionary past that is now “at odds with thriving in a modern society.” Like a lack of social ties, loneliness is found to have detrimental effects on “long-term health and well-being.” For example, Vivek Murthy, current U.S. Therefore, literally fatal consequences can result from our “perception of isolation from others-of being on the social perimeter,” to quote social neuroscience popularizers John and Stephanie Cacioppo. Contributors to the public discussion frame loneliness itself as a kind of medical condition or disorder: It is something one “suffers from,” that is partly heritable, that has characteristic “symptoms” and “risk factors,” can become “chronic,” and needs to be “treated.” Like other animals, such as fish, mice, and prairie voles, we “evolved to be social creatures,” these writers remind us.

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