The Psychology of Social Isolation

As many Americans stare down the end of their sixth month of social distancing, we are re-running a conversation we recorded back in April, that still has relevance to our lives today.

For some people, the advent of social isolation came long before the coronavirus. At the ACLU, we work with many communities who deal with the long term impacts of social isolation. People living with disabilities who often experience accessibility issues, people held in detention, and people imprisoned in solitary confinement, just to name a few. We’ll hear from folks impacted by chronic isolation as well as professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University, Dr. Julie Holt-Lunstad.