Political Loneliness

Former UK Minister Tracey Crouch recalled her time in office as being a ‘very dark’ and a ‘very lonely place’, in a 2018 Time interview.

Many would find this hard to believe. Politicians are never alone. They interact with people every waking hour, so how can they be lonely?

Loneliness is not the same as social isolation. You can be surrounded by others, yet still feel lonely. Similarly, one can be isolated whilst not feeling lonely at all.

In other words, loneliness is a subjective emotion.

Loneliness is the gap between desired levels of social contact and actual levels of social contact. The gap between those two things is a measure of the quality of social contact.

So, to understand loneliness, and political loneliness as a distinct variety, we need to focus on the quality of social contact that politicians feel they are getting.

Politicians may communicate with multiple staffers, the media, other politicians, constituents, academics, lobbyists and industry experts, yet in cancelling one single catch-up dinner with a close friend feel instantly lonely.

The reality is that politicians skip several of those moments, it’s part of the job, leaving them vulnerable to feeling an ever-increasing sense of loneliness.

Mapping this out at the macro level, the 2020 US Survey on Community & Society cross referenced membership in civic organisations with scores on a loneliness index created by UCLA. It showed that high-level politics and loneliness go together.

Active members of political organisations have an average loneliness score that ranks two points higher than the national average. Yet, members of volunteer groups are shown to have a score three points below the national average.

It also showed that whilst involvement in politics certainly exacerbates loneliness, it also attracts already-lonely individuals. Lonely adults aged 18-35 are seven times more likely to volunteer in politics than their social active peers who are not lonely.

In 2010 Cigna compared the effects of loneliness with smoking fifteen cigarettes a day, which makes loneliness even more dangerous than obesity.

High levels of loneliness triggers depression, anxiety, chronic inflammation, damaged tissue and blood vessels. It also increases the risk of heart attacks, diabetes and arthritis.

So, the Silent MP is going to keep talking about it because it matters.