Loneliness in the time of covid-19

(Director’s note: Brookes Brown, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Program in Law, Liberty and Justice, writes on civic obligation, corporate ethics, and is beginning a book project on the ethics of loneliness.  This is Clemson Humanities Now.)

Like many of you, I have not interacted socially in person with anybody outside of my household since early March—no barbeques, no dinner parties, no weddings, no coffee-dates, no board-game nights. I expect I will not do so for many months. I am fortunate—my quarantine household includes three adults and a child. Even if the number of people with whom I can engage are greatly reduced, I can have an in-person conversation, trade household duties, receive a hug. For millions of people, this is not an option. An estimated 35.7 million Americans reside in single person living arrangements (28% of households.) For such persons, quarantine often entails severe social isolation. For the rest of us, the consequences of Covid-19—the need to stay at home, tele-working, unemployment, mean far lower levels of social interaction. This increased physical isolation is likely to be accompanied by an increase in loneliness. Loneliness is not the same thing as social isolation. As great literature often reminds us, it is possible to be alone without being lonely, and to be deeply lonely without being physically alone. Yet there is certainly a correlation. The less we interact with others, lonelier we are likely to feel.

Philosophers do not typically treat the sensation of loneliness as relevant to justice. Instead, it is viewed as a matter of personal concern. I might want more friends, just like I might want to go on vacation in Tahiti, have twins, become a dermatologist, or learn to Salsa. But unlike food or shelter or healthcare or money the fact that I do not have these desires is not a moral concern.

In a project at which I am currently at work, I argue that this common way of thinking about loneliness is a mistake. Loneliness is concerning for the exact same reason that lack of access to healthcare or money are concerning, and thus should be equally considered a concern of justice. In many ways, the argument is simple. Resources like wealth or healthcare are especially important because they underlie our ability to achieve all of our different personal aims, whatever they might be. You cannot start a judo company, succeed as a trucker, or become an artist if you are dying of cancer, or cannot afford mats, brushes, or a driver’s license.

Unlike failing to make it to the South Pacific, loneliness has consequences every bit as devastating to our general ability to pursue our personal projects as lack of access to healthcare or income. Lonely people are twice as likely to develop dementia or suffer losses in executive function.^[1] Lonely individuals have higher blood-pressure, poorer sleep quality,^[2] more harmful stress hormones,^[3] and experience greater bodily pain.^[4] Women who require breast biopsies are at nine times the risk of developing breast cancer if they lack social support.^[5] Social connectedness is important for genomic expression and immune-regulation.^[6] Caring relationships give us other people that we can rely on for help in everything from moving to paying for college. Our relationships to others are even an important part of how we maintain ourselves as people who care about justice. lack of social connections has been shown to heighten self-centeredness and makes it more difficult to envision the challenges faced by others.^[7] If we are sick, have fewer people we can count on, or have trouble maintaining our dispositions we will find it harder to succeed at our aims, just as we would if we lacked money or healthcare.

This suggests that in thinking about who we as a society need to help in the coming months and years, we will not only need to consider those who will lose income, or who find themselves infected. We will also need to think about what we owe to those who are facing a loss of social connection in our global quest to survive this pandemic.