Study: Loneliness is Linked to Genes

Professor Dorret Bommsma recently led a research study, a study that had participants from two different countries. Researchers at the University of Chicago and at Free University in Amsterdam examined survey results obtained from 8,000 twins. The researchers were looking for a possible link between genes and loneliness.

Certain medical information had pointed to a possible link between genes and loneliness. Loneliness had been associated with particular physical problems. Lonely people were known to suffer a higher rate of heart disease. That fact had suggested that the development of loneliness might be under some type of genetic control.

The researchers had initiated their study in 1991. The study subjects included both identical and fraternal twins. Each group of twins shared the same family structure, and the same household environment.

The study subjects all received a list of statements. Those statements included remarks that related to loneliness, remarks such as this: "I loose friends easily," and "Nobody loves me."

The study subjects were asked to respond to those remarks. The researchers then studied the various responses.

The two research teams found that the responses from the identical twins agreed more frequently than the responses from the fraternal twins. That finding shed new light on the degree to which environment might cause or increase a feeling of loneliness. Dr. Boomsma, the study head, felt that psychologists should re-examine the notion that a person's environment can have an effect on his or her tendency to feel lonely.

Other psychologists have encouraged the performance of further studies. They have said that the twins might have learned behaviors while in the family structure. Perhaps identical twins learn behavior in the same way more often than fraternal twins. If that is the case, then that would create results similar to the results obtained by the Amsterdam and Chicago researchers.