Loneliness Pa

University of Chicago social neuroscientist John T. Cacioppo unveils his pioneering research on the startling effects of loneliness: a sense of isolation or social rejection disrupts not only our thinking abilities and will power but also our immune systems, and can be as damaging as obesity or smoking. A blend of biological and social science, this book demonstrates that, as individuals and as a society, we have everything to gain, and everything to lose, in how well or how poorly we manage our need for social bonds.

John T. Cacioppo is the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor and the director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Chicago. He lives in Chicago. William Patrick, formerly the science editor at Harvard University Press, lives on Cape Ann, Massachusetts.