Loneliness and social conformity: A predictive processing perspective

Abstract

For social creatures like humans, loneliness-which is characterized by a perceived lack of meaningful social relationships-can result in detrimental health outcomes, especially when experienced over an extended period of time. One potential way to pursue rewarding social connections could be social conformity, the tendency to align one's behavior and opinions to those of others. In this perspective article, we give a broad overview of common and distinct neural mechanisms underlying loneliness and social conformity, and the involvement of the oxytocinergic system therein. Additionally, we consider how loneliness can be understood within a predictive processing framework. Specifically, negative expectations could be related to altered representations of the self and others in the medial prefrontal cortex, whereas diminished bottom-up signals from the insula may contribute to reduced precision in the perception of the social environment. This negatively skewed internal model may perpetuate loneliness and lead to chronicity over time. While acute isolation and loneliness could drive people toward reconnection and increased social conformity, chronic loneliness may lead to distrust and avoidance, eventually resulting in nonconformity. We suggest different mediating mechanisms and moderating factors that warrant further investigation in future research.

Keywords: chronicity; internal model; loneliness; oxytocin; social cognition; social conformity.

FIGURE 1

(A) Depiction of the internal model of loneliness and its interaction with external information and feedback. External information influences the internal model, characterized by reduced precision of social information from bottom‐up signals (e.g., insula) and varied precision of top‐down predictions based on negative priors (e.g., mPFC). Neuromodulators like oxytocin play a role in modulating these processes. The internal model generates a prediction error or match. Frequent and significant prediction errors lead to either adjustments of the internal model or a skewed interpretation, contributing to the chronicity of loneliness. (B) The bidirectional interaction between external feedback and the internal model of loneliness. External feedback can either match or mismatch the internal model's predictions. A match results in no significant behavioral change, while a mismatch may be linked to conformity or nonconformity depending on the gradient from lonely to chronically lonely (this is further elaborated in Figure 2). Moderators such as attachment style, sex, and type of influence (normative vs. informational) play a role in this process.

FIGURE 2

The probability of displaying social conformity behavior, ranging from acute isolation to loneliness to chronic loneliness. The color gradient from light to dark blue indicates increasing chronicity of loneliness over time, while a gradient from dark to light orange represents a decreasing probability of displaying social conformity. The nonexhaustive list of processes and factors enhancing the probability of displaying social conformity is marked with a plus (“+”), and social conformity–reducing processes and factors are marked with a minus (“−”). The nonexhaustive list of moderators refers to additional factors that may influence the display or probability of social conformity.