Fareeda prefers to be alone. She is not particularly shy - she just derives no pleasure from the company of other people. Her mother constantly nags her to socialise more, her brother calls her a "misanthrope". Fareeda counters the accusation, claiming she is pro-solitude rather than antisocial. Friendless Fareeda is neither sad, nor lonely - just socially anhedonic. At least, that's what the doctor calls her.
The term anhedonia was introduced by the French psychologist Théodule Ribot in 1896 to refer to a diminished capacity for experiencing pleasure. Social anhedonia is the diminished ability to derive pleasure from social contact. Anhedonia is particularly important in psychiatry, where it has become a key symptom of several different mental illnesses, particularly schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, and major depression.
Psychologists have long asserted man's need to belong; we are after all "social animals" and belonging is one of our fundamental social needs. When people begin to systematically avoid social situations we tend to conclude something is going wrong. In some cases, the cause might be social anxiety; a fear that people may reject, ridicule or evaluate us negatively in social situations. In such a case we want to belong, we want social acceptance, but the possibility of rejection is too high a price to pay, so we just avoid the situation. In social anhedonia however, the actual desire for belonging, and the drive for social interaction is just not there at all.
Research looking at both socially anhedonic and socially anxious college students has attempted to quantify the relative levels of isolation, and the different reasons given for self-imposed solitude. One recent study used a technique known as experience sampling to explore this question. This experience sampling study involved contacting students randomly eight times a day, over a period of one week. At each contact the student would report where they were and who they were with. In spite of their people fears, the socially anxious students were actually far more likely to be around people than the socially anhedonic. The socially anxious might play the "wallflower" or the "strong, silent type"; but it is the socially anhedonic who is the true lone wolf. Despite their more frequent solitude, the socially anhedonic had a firmer belief that other people actually wanted them around; it was their preference to be alone.
So what are the implications of this apparent loss of social appetite? Longitudinal research suggests social anhedonia in young adults is a major risk factor for later-life psychiatric problems. One follow-up study looked at two groups of college students; those with higher-than-average levels of social anhedonia, and a control group with fairly normal levels of social functioning. The participants were followed for 10 years. By the time of the final assessment, when most of the participants were entering their early 30s, 24 per cent of the socially anhedonic individuals had experienced a diagnosable psychological disorder, while this was true for only one per cent of the control group. A more recent study using the same high-risk design, this time over a five year period, found that 18 per cent (six out of 32) of the socially anhedonic students developed a severe mental health problem, while none of the control group did.
It is important to note that none of the young people in these studies had any mental health problems in late adolescence, when the studies began. But five or 10 years later, many experienced some of the more severe and enduring mental health problems of our age.
So what happened? One idea proposed by the psychology Professor Thomas Kwapil and colleagues at the University of North Carolina is that social contact, want it or not, provides protection against the onset of severe mental health problems. This protective social contact is decreasingly available as people move into the "real-world", away from family and to some extent college life. For the socially anhedonic who tend not to have, or want social contact, this is a time of particular vulnerability, when solitude and self isolation can intensify and the risk of psychological problems is elevated.
It's paradoxical that in our increasingly populous cities, we are decreasingly able to experience meaningful social contact. Many of us do not even appreciate that we need it. Social contact provided by our fellow human beings promotes mental health, strengthens our resilience, and helps us to flourish. And while people will occasionally drive us crazy, it is important to remember: they also keep us sane.
Justin Thomas is an assistant professor at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi