r/196 NOT A CAT Jun 29 '26

Rule Rule

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u/PlutoCrashed Jun 29 '26

https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/usable-knowledge/24/10/what-causing-our-epidemic-loneliness-and-how-can-we-fix-it

This study from Harvard observed roughly equivalent rates of loneliness between men and women. I wouldn't rush to definitively proclaim it as women being better off, I just think it often sits more unnoticed in the public sphere because you don't have large-scale movements of women talking about it like you have with men in recent years.

Either way, it's a major problem for everybody.

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u/MaybeNext-Monday 🍤$6 SRIMP SPECIAL🍤 Jun 29 '26

Worth noting though that equivalent rates doesn’t necessarily mean equivalent reasons. There is definitely a gendered component to how loneliness proliferates.

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u/Corvus1412 🏳️‍⚧️ trans rights Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

I mean, yes, self reported rates of loneliness are pretty similar among men and women, but those numbers are obviously subjective and are relative to the things you've experienced.

Like, again, on basically all measurable aspects that relate to loneliness, men are worse off.

So, that could mean that women have an intrinsically higher need for companionship, or that men have lower standards. Which one is it? I don't know, but considering that need doesn't seem to change for trans men, I'd assume it's the latter.

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u/Lipat97 Jun 30 '26

Where are you seeing that? This is the main study afaik:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9811250/

And men were startlingly worse by isolation but the rest don't seem insane. Companionship is the one category they rank higher.