Social interactions, loneliness and health: A new angle on an old debate

Arbeitspapier

This paper investigates the relationship between historically rooted norms that drive individuals to adhere to predeftned behavioural standards and attitudes towards loneliness. Focusing on a sub-population of second-generation immigrants, we identify an intergenerationally transmitted component of culture that respects the importance of restrained discipline and rules characterising highly intensive pre-industrial agricultural systems. We illustrate how this cultural dimension impacts perceptions of the quality of social relationships and plays a substantial role in the likelihood of experiencing loneliness. Subsequently, we show the validity of the identifted trait as an instrument for loneliness in a two-stage model for health. We also ftnd that loneliness has a direct impact on body mass index and speciftc mental health issues, with these results being robust across a range of sensitivity checks. These ftndings contribute to the growing body of research emphasising the pivotal role of attitudes in predicting signiftcant economic and health outcomes, thus opening up a new pathway through which deeply-rooted geographical, cultural, and individual characteristics can influence comparative economic development processes in both origin and destination countries.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: GLO Discussion Paper ; No. 1378

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Health Behavior ; Health and Inequality ; Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-labor Market Discrimination ; Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making‡ ; Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification
• Subject: loneliness ; ancestral characteristics ; social norms ; health

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Casabianca, Elizabeth ; Kovacic, Matija
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Global Labor Organization (GLO)
• (where): Essen
• (when): 2024

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/281173
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET