A Study on Loneliness

I found a book titled Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection by John T. Cacioppo and William Patrick
It's a sociological/neuroscience-based study that tries to make sense of what loneliness is and what its role is within our society.
Since it is a publication of their findings and I think it sort of relates to what I am studying, I decided to compile some quotes that I thought the most interesting.

"the need for meaningful social connection and the pain we feel without it, are defining characteristics of our species. "

"social pain, also known as loneliness, evolved for a similar reason (like physical pain protects from physical dangers): because it protected the individual from the danger of remaining isolated."

"Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) shows us that the emotional region of the brain that is activated when we experience rejection is, in fact, the same region that registers emotional responses to physical pain." (8)

"Most neuroscientists now agree that, over a period of tens and thousands of years, it was the need to send and receive, interpret and relay increasingly complex social cues that drove the expansion of, and greater interconnectedness within, the cortical mantle of the human brain." (11)

"The social environment affects the neural and hormonal signals that govern our behavior" (11) and vise versa

"each of us inherits from our parents a certain level of need for social inclusion, just as we inherit a certain basic body type and basic level of intelligence." (14)

"the importance we assign to our place within a network of family and social relationships began to erode with the dawn of the industrial revolution." (53)

I definitely plan to read a little more and make time for a more in-depth blog post that connects their findings and my own hypotheses.