Given the structure of the study I wonder whether the potential relationship between extroversion and loneliness as reported was explored. Ie do introverts report loneliness less in general?
In one example of extroverts, a person could be accustomed to interacting with important others socially and loses them. This loss of regular experience of memory recall generated by many social interactions could potentially lead to under practice of memory functions generally. It also might make it more likely they would report loneliness.
Some similar studies exist for removing elderly from their homes and/or purging them of their “unnecessary stuff.” Again here the memory function triggered by their regular visual stimulation of memories associated with their stuff may be sustaining those brain functions.
I think instead of trying to associate bad feelings with bad outcomes we should be asking what combinations of individual tendencies and situations produce those bad feelings, and how might those bad feelings be linked to very real experiential losses that might be sustained relatively easily.
One mitigation might be to record the elderly’s persons friends and/or house/belongings and make them available in VR.
I suspect it's the presence of people who you feel have "got your back" rather than the mere presence of people.
Having 15 friends who do not genuinely care for you would therefore probably be worse than having just 2 who do.
This reminds me of the survival reality TV show 'Alone', which is an interesting, if not contrived, experiment into how "being alone" can affect you psychologically, or not, depending on the person.
I believe that loneliness stems from one's inability to be friends with oneself, to enjoy one's company. This quote by Osho[2] comes to mind:
“The capacity to be alone is the capacity to love. It may look paradoxical to you, but it’s not. It is an existential truth: only those people who are capable of being alone are capable of love, of sharing, of going into the deepest core of another person—without possessing the other, without becoming dependent on the other, without reducing the other to a thing, and without becoming addicted to the other. They allow the other absolute freedom, because they know that if the other leaves, they will be as happy as they are now. Their happiness cannot be taken by the other, because it is not given by the other.”
[1] Loneliness: Causes and Health Consequences — https://www.verywellmind.com/loneliness-causes-effects-and-t...
[2] The Capacity To Be Alone — http://www.arrowpsychotherapy.com/blog/capacitytobealone