Loneliness Predicts Insensitivity to Partner Commitment

Role of the Orbitofrontal Cortex in the Computation of Relationship Value

“…Accordingly, Bliege Bird et al (2018) proposed that the primary function of such sharing is to signal one's commitment to the relationship and thus reaffirm the existing relationship. A possible counterpart of such day-today sharing in modern, industrialized societies may be exchanges of pro-relationship behaviors (Yamaguchi et al, 2015(Yamaguchi et al, , 2017. For example, listening to a friend's personal problems for a long period and planning/ throwing a surprise party for a friend's birthday serve as commitment signals; recipients of such prorelationship behaviors, which are costly in terms of time spent by the signalers listening or planning, tend to upregulate the relationship value of the signalers (Yamaguchi et al, 2015(Yamaguchi et al, , 2017.…”

“…A possible counterpart of such day-today sharing in modern, industrialized societies may be exchanges of pro-relationship behaviors (Yamaguchi et al, 2015(Yamaguchi et al, , 2017. For example, listening to a friend's personal problems for a long period and planning/ throwing a surprise party for a friend's birthday serve as commitment signals; recipients of such prorelationship behaviors, which are costly in terms of time spent by the signalers listening or planning, tend to upregulate the relationship value of the signalers (Yamaguchi et al, 2015(Yamaguchi et al, , 2017. This result is reasonable because spending one's time on a particular friend prohibits the signalers from interacting with other potential partners, therefore clearly demonstrating their commitment to their friendship (Dunbar, 2018;Miritello et al, 2013;Sutcliffe et al, 2012; for the effect of cost involved in signals, see Laidre & Johnstone, 2013).…”

“…However, relatively low-cost pro-relationship behaviors (e.g., just giving a birthday wish) are also known to facilitate upregulation of the relationship value, though to a lesser extent than do high-cost prorelationship behaviors (Yamaguchi et al, 2015(Yamaguchi et al, , 2017. This is likely because such low-cost pro-relationship behaviors still require constant attention on the targetit is easy to forget someone's birthday unless we are constantly paying attention to them (Ohtsubo et al, 2014).…”

“…Drawing from the results of Ohtsubo et al's (2018) study, we predicted that commitment signals (i.e., prorelationship behaviors) would also activate the OFC. The vignette study of Yamaguchi et al (2017) revealed that both high-cost and low-cost commitment signals promote the upregulation of relationship value more than commitment signal failures (e.g., failing to express interest in a friend's photo) but also that high-cost commitment signals are more effective than low-cost ones in promoting upregulation. Therefore, we predicted that the OFC would be activated more by high-cost commitment signals than by low-cost commitment signals and signal failures and more by low-cost commitment signals than by signal failures.…”

Social Participation among the Elderly: Moderated Mediation Model of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

“…Negative feelings are far more powerful and influential than positive feelings (Tsui & Barry, 1986). Negative feelings that loneliness generates can make people insensitive to their other relationships (Yamaguchi, Smith, & Ohtsubo, 2017). In their cognitive neuroscience study, Cacioppo, Catherine, Decety, Monteleone, and Nusbaum (2009) found that lonely individuals respond less actively to socialization than non-lonely people.…”