It seems tense: The influence of loneliness on perceived social conflict and societal threats

Abstract

In recent years, many Western democracies have experienced increased political polarization, eroding social cohesion and, in some cases, heightened fear of violence among the general population. Simultaneously, surveys have found high rates of loneliness in modern societies and that it appears to have an impact on hypervigilance to social threats. This paper links and extends both lines of literature and investigates whether loneliness influences citizens' perceptions of the state of society, namely the presence of societal conflicts and fear of the failure of social institutions. Analyzing cross-national data from the European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS), the paper shows that loneliness is associated with high levels of perceived social conflict. A subsequent analysis of panel data confirms that rising loneliness is positively associated with increasing fear of social unrest and failure of social institutions, which supports the idea that loneliness does cause an elevated sense of social conflict and insecurity. In conclusion, we extend the “hypervigilance to social threats” hypothesis of loneliness and argue that loneliness causes universal hypervigilance for social and societal threats.