Reducing Loneliness through the Power of Practicing Together: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Online Dyadic Socio-Emotional vs. Mindfulness-Based Training

Abstract

Loneliness has become a pressing topic, especially among young adults and during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a randomized controlled trial with 253 healthy adults, we evaluated the differential efficacy of two 10-week app-delivered mental training programs: one based on classic mindfulness and one on an innovative partner-based socio-emotional practice (Affect Dyad). We show that the partner-based training resulted in greater reductions in loneliness than the mindfulness-based training. This effect was shown on three measures of loneliness: general loneliness assessed with the 20-item UCLA Loneliness Scale, state loneliness queried over an 8-day ecological momentary assessment in participants' daily lives, and loneliness ratings required before and after daily practice. Our study provides evidence for the higher efficacy of a mental training approach based on a 12 min practice conducted with a partner in reducing loneliness and provides a novel, scalable online approach to reduce the increasing problem of loneliness in society.