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.