Perceived Environmental Safety Buffers the Adverse Effect of Loneliness on the Subjective Well-being of Urban Residents

초록

Loneliness, a well-established risk factor for mental health, has been strongly associated with low subjective well-being (SWB). However, less is known about potential boundary conditions that may ameliorate this ‘dark side’ of loneliness. Social connections are critical for SWB based on innate evolutionary traits; a lack of belonging was directly harmful to human survival in the past. In this study, we hypothesized that loneliness would exert a more pronounced influence on SWB when an individual’s need for others (i.e., a social resource) is perceived as high while simultaneously existing in a harsh environment. With a particular focus on urban residents in Seoul, who are presumed to be more vulnerable to loneliness, we examined whether feeling lonely matters less to SWB under favorable environmental conditions. As expected, a pilot study indicated that loneliness was less harmful to the SWB of individuals who perceived their surroundings as relatively secure and favorable. We then replicated the results in an experimental study by exposing people to cues of either a harsh (e.g., via scarcity cues) or a favorable environment.

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