The Social Stigma of Loneliness: Effect of Age and State of Solitude
Abstract
The study tested for the social stigma of loneliness, and examined how the perception of loneliness is affected by age and state of solitude. Scenarios were given in which the target was either a college student who was 21-years-old or a retiree who was 71-years-old. The college student and retiree were depicted as either lonely or not lonely. College students and retirees were ranked equally on loneliness. Compared to people who were not alone, people who are alone were perceived as lonelier. College students were rated similarly in terms of loneliness in both conditions of being alone or not alone, whereas retires were rated as being lonelier when they are alone, than when they are not alone.
The Social Stigma of Loneliness: Effect of Age and State of Solitude
Loneliness is usually perceived as a suggestion of social deficit. A minimal, or lack of social ties, may signify personal shortcomings, such as the presence of socially undesirable attributes or the absence of socially valued attributes. Due to the stigma, others avoid the lonely person, and this makes the lonely person even less accepted and more withdrawn. Researchers and theorists have generally assumed that loneliness carries a negative social stigma. The research conducted by S. Lau and Gerald Gruen (1992) studied the perception of lonely and nonlonely individuals. Their study examined whether measures of interpersonal attraction and measures of significant psychological attributes, such as adjustment, sociability, achievement, and competence, differed in between the lonely and nonlonely person. Findings of the study indicated that the lonely person was attributed with lower measures of psychological and interpersonal characteristics compared to the nonlonely person. In another study, Norman Schultz Jr. and DeWayne Moore (1988) measured the perception of loneliness across three age groups: high school students, college students, and the elderly. The level of loneliness was found to be lower for the elderly age group compared to that of high school students and college students.
The purpose of this study is to examine how the perception of loneliness is affected by the age of an individual (i.e., college students and retirees) and how loneliness is affected by the state of solitude (i.e., alone and not alone). The study consists of three hypotheses. The first hypothesis for our main effect of age is that participants will perceive a retiree as being lonelier than a college student. We predict that participants will assume that retirees are lonelier than college students because the inevitable life transition into retirement will lead to social isolation. Retirees will now have to work harder to stay connected to their social networks. The second hypothesis for our main effect of state of solitude is that people who are alone will be perceived as lonelier than people who are not alone. We predict that participants will perceive that people who are alone are by themselves because they choose not to interact with others, leading to a lack of a social network to which they can confide in. The third hypothesis for our interaction effect is that college students are rated similarly in terms of loneliness when they are alone and not alone, while retirees are viewed as being lonelier when they are not with another individual than when they are with another individual. We predict that college students will have the same rating of loneliness between the two conditions. Since college students are frequently surrounded by peers, it is assumed that a college student who is alone, is alone by choice, perhaps to have his or her own time and space.
Method
Participants
Participants consisted of 21 undergraduate students of whom were 19 women and two men. Students are from an upper division human development course, and are participating in the study for course credit.
Materials
Undergraduate students were given four vignettes with four different scenarios. The vignettes included the four following questions: a) A 21-year-old named Sam is at the park alone eating a cup of yogurt after working out. How lonely do you think they are?” b) “A 21-year-old named Jessie is scrolling through Facebook while eating ice cream with a group of friends at the park. How lonely do you think they are?” c) “A 71-year-old named Taylor is having a sandwich and feeding the ducks at the park alone. How lonely do you think they are?” d) “A 71-year-old named Jordan is eating a peach while reading the newspaper with a group of friends at the park. How lonely do you think they are?” Under each vignette, a Likert scale was given, in which the participant ranked the loneliness of the target person in the scenario. The scale ranged from “0” to “10”, with “0” being “not lonely”, and “10” being “very lonely”. After the second vignette, participants were asked to stop at the bottom of the page. In between the first two vignettes and the last two vignettes, a distractor task was implemented. For the distractor task, participants were given two minutes to write down as many state capitols as possible. Additional materials used in the experiment included one phone used as a stopwatch, and scratch paper and pencils for the distractor task.
Procedures
The four vignettes were randomly ordered by a balanced Latin square. Using the balance square prevented any carryover effects and order effects from occurring. This also ensured that each participant would receive each condition of the independent variables in a random order. The four vignettes and distractor task were stapled into a packet. Each of the four vignettes was on a separate page in order to ensure that participants would not see the next questions and have their answers be influenced. Once the packets and scratch paper were handed out, participants were given two minutes to complete the first two vignettes. When the two-minute mark was over, participants had one minute to complete the distractor task, where they wrote down as many of the 50 state capitals in the U.S. as possible. After the distractor task, participants were given another two minutes to complete the last two vignettes.
The experiment used a 2 (Age) x 2 (State of Solitude) within-subjects design in which the participants were exposed to all the conditions. The study consists of two independent variables: age and state of solitude. Each of the variables had two conditions each. The independent variable of age consisted of college students who were 21-years-old and retirees who are 71-years-old. The independent variable of state of solitude consisted of being alone and not being alone. Being alone means having no one else present and not being alone means having someone present. The dependent variable is the level of loneliness. The level of loneliness was measured via the Likert Scale, with “0” representing “not lonely”, and “10” representing “very lonely”.
Results
A within-subject 2 (Age [college students, retirees]) X 2 (State of Solitude [alone, not alone]) ANOVA was used to test for the difference in participants’ view on loneliness among college students and retirees. The within-subjects test found a nonsignificant main effect of age, F(1, 20) =1.75, MSE = 3.00, p > .05. There was a nonsignificant difference between participants’ perception of loneliness in college students (M = 2.19, SD = 1.86) and in retirees (M = 2.690, SD = 1.17). Participants equally ranked loneliness of both college students and retirees.
As for state of solitude, a significant main effect was found, F(1, 20) = 16.30, MSE = 6.59, p < .05. There was a significant difference between the participants’ perception of people who are alone (M = 3.57, SD = 2.04) and people who are not alone (M = 1.31, SD = 1.57). Participants ranked individuals alone as lonelier than individuals not alone.
There was a significant interaction effect between age and state of solitude, F(1, 20) = 24.41, SDE = 3.73, p < 0.05 (see Figure 1). A post hoc Tukey HSD test was conducted to examine significant differences. A nonsignificant difference was found between participants’ perception of college alone (M = 2.34, SD = 2.53) and college students not alone (M = 2.14, SD = 2.83). In other words, participants equally ranked loneliness of college students alone and college students not alone. However, a significant difference was found between participants’ perception of retirees alone (M = 4.91, SD = 2.19) and retirees not alone (M = 0.476, SD = 0.87). This meant that participants ranked retirees alone as lonelier than retirees not alone. Other significant differences of participants’ perception of loneliness were as follows: Participants ranked retirees alone as lonelier than college students alone. Participants ranked college students alone as lonelier than retirees not alone. Participants ranked retirees alone as lonelier than college students not alone. Lastly, participants ranked college students not alone as lonelier than retirees not alone.
Discussion
The experiment aimed to examine the negative social stigma of loneliness. Age, state of solitude, or the interaction of both age and state of solitude were analyzed to determine if the participants of the study perceived and ranked loneliness differently. Based on our results, two out of the three hypotheses were supported. Our first hypotheses that participants will perceive a retiree as being lonelier than a college student was not supported. Instead, college students and retirees were actually equally ranked. The second and third hypotheses were supported by the results. People who were alone were indeed perceived as being lonelier than people who were not alone. College students had similar ratings in both conditions of being alone and not alone, while retirees received higher ratings of loneliness when they were alone compared to when they were not alone.
As discussed in Lau and Gruen’s (1992) study, our study supported the negative social stigma that is associated with loneliness. Whereas Lau and Gruen (1992) examined how gender and the presence of a social network affects the stigma of loneliness, our study supports age and state of solitude as factors that are also associated with the stigma. The perception of others’ loneliness is different from the perception of one’s own loneliness. While the younger age groups in Schultz and Moore’s (1988) study rated own levels of loneliness as lower compared to retirees, it is the social stigma of loneliness that ultimately leads to the belief that the elderly are lonelier.
A nonsignificant main effect of age was found, which leads us to conclude that loneliness cannot be judged if it is based solely on age. As for state of solitude, a significant main effect was found. This can be associated with the culture that has molded us. Being surrounded by people will lead to the perception that the person is involved with a social network and therefore, chooses to interact with others. On the other hand, a person who is alone is perceived as lacking in a social network because they choose not to interact with others. Results found a significant interaction effect between age and state of solitude. These findings may be associated with the presence of generational differences between college students and retirees. College students who were not alone were rated as lonelier than retirees who were not alone, and this is because of the fact that the younger generation relies heavily on social media to stay connected. In contrast, the older generation relied on more face-to-face interactions to stay connected because of their minimal, or lack of knowledge with technology and social media. Moreover, since college students are frequently surrounded by their peers, encountering college students who are by themselves may be perceived as the students’ choice to have their own time and space.
Theoretical implications were presented in which people have the tendency to judge others based on external characteristics. However, these judgments do not always correlate with the reality. Cultural stigma can lead to incorrect perceptions, because those who are truly lonely are not recognized as being lonely, while others can be falsely evaluated in a negative way. Individuals who are perceived negatively are commonly socially avoided, and this can have a detrimental effect on the person’s psychological well-being.
Various limitations were found in our study. A source was error is attributed to an extraneous variable, which was the participants’ own state of loneliness. Participants’ state of loneliness during the time the study was conducted may affect how they rate the target individual’s loneliness in the scenario. Furthermore, the sample size of the study was not diverse, as it was conducted on 19 females and two males. The findings may not be as accurate as it should be, because of the unequal proportion of gender diversity in the study. While women generally have a large social circle throughout their lives, men experience a large group of friends to a smaller social circle of close friends as they age. As a result, having more men participants can alter the current results, because they may rate retirees as lonelier.
Further implications to improve the study would be to sample an equal proportion of male and females from various age groups in order to avoid selection bias and to receive more accurate results. Since participants’ own state of loneliness should also be taken into account, a further improvement would be to measure the participants’ loneliness before the start of the study. A Likert scale would be used to measure the participants’ level of loneliness to better understand their state of loneliness. In this way, we will be able to see how the participants’ own loneliness will influence their ratings of the target individuals in the study. With these various improvements, the future study will be able to yield more accurate results.
References
Lau, S., Gruen, G.E. (1992). The social stigma of loneliness: effect of target person’s and perceiver’s sex. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18, 182-189. doi: 10.1177/0146167292182009
Schultz, N., & Moore, D. (1988). Loneliness: Differences across three age levels. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 5(1988), 275-284. doi: 10.1177/0265407588053001
Figure 1. Level of loneliness as a function of the interaction between age and state of solitude.
Appendix
