Project R-16811

Lonely on the Lookout: The Impact of Loneliness on Threat-Safety Learning and Fear Generalization. (Research)

Loneliness has increased markedly in recent decades and poses serious risks to both mental and physical health, particularly anxiety disorders. This project examines whether these risks arise because lonely individuals become overly sensitive to detect and react to potential threats. Drawing on evolutionary theory, we propose that loneliness promotes a "better-safe-than-sorry" mindset, leading to impaired safety learning and excessive spreading of fear to similar but technically safe stimuli. These altered fear learning processes may predispose lonely individuals to develop anxiety disorders. To test this, we will use a multi-method approach, integrating the strengths of correlational evidence (study1: a large-scale online study in a community sample, study2: cross-sectional lab study in chronic lonely individuals) with controlled lab experiments manipulating loneliness (study3-4), as well as ecological validity (study 5: real-world daily within-person fluctuations in loneliness using ecological momentary assessment), allowing us to unravel the underlying mechanisms of how loneliness shapes threat-safety learning and fear generalization.

01 October 2026 - 30 September 2030