Loneliness across the world: do young people from different cultures feel the same?

Luzia Heu
Luzia Heu

Is feeling lonely the same for everyone in the world? Are (young) people from cultures where family is more central perhaps less lonely? Luzia Heu investigates how culture affects feelings of loneliness. "We found that human beings experience loneliness quite similarly, irrespective of where they live: definitions of loneliness varied more between individuals than between cultures."

What inspired you to pursue research that crosses the boundaries of disciplines and countries?

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"Growing up, I often felt out of sync with the norms around me. In my teenage years, my peers thought it was 鈥榰ncool鈥 to do well in school or to avoid drinking heavily, and adults seemed to assume that not rebelling against my parents was somehow unhealthy. I was quite independent and have lived more than 1000 kilometres away from my family for over a decade now. Still, as an adolescent in Austrian culture, I was both 鈥榰ncool鈥 and 鈥榙isordered.鈥

This personal experience opened my eyes to how much our values, behaviours, and social judgments are shaped by cultural norms. When I learned that in many cultures, adolescent rebellion is rare and moving away from family is unusual, I started to understand just how much social context influences what is seen as 鈥榥ormal鈥 or acceptable. This realisation was liberating鈥攊t showed me that many psychological and social dynamics aren鈥檛 universal but vary widely across social and geographic contexts.

This insight also struck me as critical for social science research, where findings are often generalised despite mostly coming from Western, highly educated samples. Much of what we think we know about 鈥榓dolescents鈥 is based on a limited context, and I wanted to explore the impact of different social and cultural influences on psychological processes. This naturally led me to interdisciplinary work, blending psychology, sociology, and anthropology. I鈥檝e never quite understood why we restrict ourselves to rigid disciplinary boundaries. Why limit ourselves to one methodology or theoretical framework when a broader approach can better answer the questions we care about? For me, interdisciplinarity wasn鈥檛 an explicit goal but a natural consequence of using the tools that best fit the questions I wanted to explore."

What are some of the key findings in your work that you鈥檙e most proud of?

"One study that has deeply influenced my understanding of loneliness was where we interviewed 42 people from India, Egypt, Bulgaria, Israel, and Austria about their definitions, causes, and remedies for loneliness. We wanted to know if loneliness means the same thing across cultures, which is crucial because many studies compare loneliness across countries without questioning whether the concept is understood similarly everywhere.

We found that human beings experience loneliness quite similarly, irrespective of where they live: definitions of loneliness varied more between individuals than between cultures. Conducting these in-depth interviews gave me a much richer understanding of loneliness than I鈥檇 ever found in the research literature, and I was grateful to be able to share these diverse perspectives through papers, media interviews, public talks, and even a collection of video clips on our website loneliness-across-cultures.com. This project was particularly rewarding because it included voices from countries that are often underrepresented in research.

An unexpected bonus was that participating in these interviews seemed to help people enrich their lives. Some participants felt a sense of relief, having shared stories they鈥檇 never told anyone before, while others wanted their experiences to reach others who felt the same way. This was a powerful reminder that simply listening to people鈥檚 experiences and making space for them without judgement can be healing, often more so than any scientific paper we write afterwards.鈥

Some participants felt a sense of relief, having shared stories they鈥檇 never told anyone before, while others wanted their experiences to reach others who felt the same way.

Luzia Heu
Luzia Heu

What are the real-world implications of your findings?

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"Many loneliness interventions focus on increasing social contact, assuming that loneliness results from a lack of interaction. However, most people I interviewed felt lonely for reasons unrelated to isolation. Their loneliness stemmed from interpersonal conflicts, breakups, loss, distant family relationships, or simply not fitting in with social norms. Others felt lonely due to low social energy, high expectations of relationships, or feeling easily rejected.

This suggests we need varied interventions that address specific causes of loneliness rather than a one-size-fits-all approach focused on socialising more. For example, psychotherapy might help people reshape perceptions of others as hostile or unreliable, which can be rooted in distant family relationships. Support groups could offer relief to those who often feel rejected due to belonging to marginalised groups.

Our research also shows that effective interventions depend on understanding local, social, or cultural norms. Norms influence how often certain loneliness risks occur and shape which factors are most strongly tied to loneliness in a given context. So, knowing the cultural landscape can help us design interventions that reach the right people and address the most impactful causes.

Finally, many young people I spoke with described loneliness as a feeling of not being understood. Just talking to others with similar feelings often made a difference for them. By disseminating my research through videos, blog posts, public talks, media interviews, and an upcoming podcast, I鈥檝e tried to share the idea that loneliness is not a solitary, unique experience but something that many people go through. Challenging stereotypes about loneliness, such as the idea that lonely people are always socially isolated, can also help people feel less alone and more willing to open up."

What motivates you to keep working in this area?

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Loneliness is something almost everyone experiences, yet it鈥檚 still misunderstood and stigmatised in casual conversation, the media, and even research. Breaking down the stereotypes and misconceptions about loneliness is what keeps me passionate about this work, even after nine years. I鈥檓 also very interested in what makes people severely or chronically lonely. Loneliness is a normal human experience, and only some people do not recover from it. So, there鈥檚 much more to uncover on our way to effective loneliness interventions. However, with my qualitative research, I hope to foster compassion and acceptance by communicating that loneliness experiences are much more diverse and relatable to most of us than often portrayed.

About Luzia Heu

After a Bachelor鈥檚 degree in Psychology from the 木瓜福利影视 of Vienna (Austria), Luzia completed a Research Master's in Behavioural and Social Sciences and a PhD in Cultural Psychology from the 木瓜福利影视 of Groningen. Luzia now works as an Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Social Science at Utrecht 木瓜福利影视, where she investigates loneliness across cultures, nonconformity to social norms, the development of chronic loneliness, and spatial loneliness interventions. She uses qualitative and quantitative methods and integrates literature and findings into new theories. Luzia actively communicates her findings through videos, blog posts, and a .

This article was previously published in the magazine Our planet, our youth, our future!

This magazine, Our Planet, Our Youth, Our Future! explores the global connections between youth well-being, sustainability, and planetary health. By listening to and working alongside youth, researchers from Utrecht 木瓜福利影视 and UMC Utrecht seek to shape a more just, sustainable world. The magazine is a joint publication by Dynamics of Youth, UGlobe, and Child Health (UMC Utrecht).

View the magazine here