BUFFALO — When it comes to seeking solitude, many people often blame mental health issues as an underlying cause. But a new study finds that being alone has its benefits too, particularly when it comes to people looking for a surge of creativity.
Researchers at the University of Buffalo interviewed 295 privacy-valuing individuals who reported a variety of reasons for their tendency to spend a lot of time alone, ranging from feeling fear or anxiety around others to preferring to use spare time working on a craft.
Although research has traditionally suggested that excessive time alone can be unhealthy, some seclusive pursuits, such as trying to connect to nature or get a better sense of self, can be constructive, the researchers found.
“We have to understand why someone is withdrawing to understand the associated risks and benefits,” says Julie Bowker, the study’s lead author, in a university release.
“When people think about the costs associated with social withdrawal, oftentimes they adopt a developmental perspective,” she continues. “During childhood and adolescence, the idea is that if you’re removing yourself too much from your peers, then you’re missing out on positive interactions like receiving social support, developing social skills and other benefits of interacting with your peers.”
Bowker believes that the presumed downsides of being alone and withdrawing have lent such a preference a hard-to-erase stigma.
More recent research, including this latest study, has begun to recognize the potential benefits of alone time — provided it’s an intentional choice prompted by positive emotions.
Deeming individuals who follow such guidelines “unsociable,” Bowker explains that they may enjoy reading, working on the computer, or otherwise spending precious time alone.
Importantly, unsociable individuals, whether young and old, are not at increased risk of experiencing negative health outcomes. In fact, the researchers found that they may enjoy a special benefit: improved creativity.
“Although unsociable youth spend more time alone than with others, we know that they spend some time with peers. They are not antisocial,” Bowker emphasizes. “They don’t initiate interaction, but also don’t appear to turn down social invitations from peers. Therefore, they may get just enough peer interaction so that when they are alone, they are able to enjoy that solitude. They’re able to think creatively and develop new ideas — like an artist in a studio or the academic in his or her office.”
Other, less healthy forms of isolation include social avoidance (i.e., choosing to withdraw due to fear), and social withdrawal (i.e., shyness), she notes.
While these two forms may overlap with unsociability, neither would appear to confer the benefits of the latter.
“Over the years, unsociability has been characterized as a relatively benign form of social withdrawal,” Bowker concludes. “But, with the new findings linking it to creativity, we think unsociability may be better characterized as a potentially beneficial form of social withdrawal.”
The study’s findings were published Personality and Individual Differences.
i like to be alone for clarity of thought……I’ll have a piece of that pumpkin pie now! 😉
This means that I am probably the most creative person on Earth.
“my time” has always been the most rewarding….. Unless I’m screwing with Snowflakes online! lol
Is it really “isolation” or is it just getting away from all the distractions?
I lived in a fraternity house when I was in college–way before computers and cellphones–that was for developing my “social skills” I guess. But when I needed to do some serious studying I would get in the car and go to a park in a nearby residential area. I could get a week’s work done in a couple of hours, sitting in the car.
Dear “Science”:
We did not need a study about this.
Sincerely,
Common Sense
People annoy me…I love my dog and silence,,,People are a nuisance,
I love being alone except for a woman I know who is the same and we hook up
a couple times a month,,
Take a look at only children. My comfort zone is alone.
i like to be alone so i can drink.
I drink to forget that I drink too much.
I have always been a loner since childhood. I don’t have any anxieties about it, I just find most people shallow and uninteresting. Just look around at the entertainment apparatus that this culture has built. It caters to those with no intellectual depth. The Facebook and cellphone zombies are everywhere and I choose not to interact with them, except in a career related capacity. I’ve been married and divorced twice. In both instances I felt completely at the mercy of someone else’s whims and unable to explore my own thoughts and goals. I find peace in solitude and always have.
If Hillary could just leave us alone it would improve overall mental health so go back to the woods
I go through phases, some periods of my life have been filled with people and others, such as today, absolutely nobody… I get to a point where everyone just pisses me off and so I push them away! It’s my choice 9 times out of ten. But then I do feel lonely but I look back on the things people do and then it reminds me why I chose this!
Better to be alone than be surrounded by a bunch of fake users! My most recent ex girlfriend liked to scream in my face a lot and decided to even get physical, punching me in the face repeatedly just because I wouldn’t believe her ridiculous lies, which she later admitted were lies. Why the hell would I want to be around that for example!
I just find most people to be horrible and clueless! You could say I am making bad choices I guess, but you would think that even by luck I would meet someone that’s nice!
When I think of the bad times surrounded by people I then appreciate my peace and quiet and solitude.
A really creative person doesn’t need other people to entertain them, people are great, but so is solitude.
I love my home solitude, it allows me to sift through my imagination searching for the exact inventive equations having zero negative outside turbulence for Ideas bristling with lights brilliance, thinking way beyond miracles or magic, welding seasoned wisdom into 3D logic, touching upon every informational facet, drinking from my imaginations thought faucet, sparking inventions into realization bliss with perfect electrochemical thought synapses, morphing answers and solutions into actualization, canceling out life’s habitual stifling procrastination, letting my body self-tune adjust to minds motivations with alertness, dexterity, strength, for the inventive occasions utilizing my full-governing daily applied commonsense expressing out of the box thoughts morphed into sense, after all, smooth running healthy inventive reality goes @ the speed and quality freewill choices, If everyone knew this simple fact, the Earth would be such a Heavenly peaceful place to live.
I try to tell folks this but it goes right over their heads because their so enslaved to fear, myth, superstitions, and stupid repetitive childish radio brainwashing songs of no intelligent value.
@ 75 yr’old my main get away from todays disturbed reality is solo riding off road Motorcycle in extreme conditions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIK-Ww9HEsU
Good grief, I would rather be alone than waste my time with a flaming liberal. They just suck the air out the room…
Maybe so, but it can be dangerous depending on your frame of mind. – A number of the mass murders and school shootings you hear about are at the hands of loners.
A number of the mass murders and school shootings you hear about are at the hands of sociopaths. Some of these are people who also use psychotropic or other drugs.
I like being alone because if I spend too much time around people they start giving me money and that threatens my disability payments from the Federal government.
Scientists need to also investigate causes, not just effects.
For example, earlier in 2017, a rodent study of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance challenged the immune system of a pregnant dam in the equivalent of the middle of the first trimester for humans. The children AND the grandchildren AND the great-grandchildren showed significant impaired sociability, abnormal fear expression, sensorimotor gating deficiencies, and behavioral despair.
Scientists can’t trace impaired sociability back to the causes in humans if they aren’t even looking.
I enjoy my man cave time, not apologizing for it.
“Sometimes” this – “sometimes” that – “sometimes” something else. What a “finding”!!!!
I absolutely need periods of solitude if I intend to be sane and productive.
Life is about balance.