About the Authors
John T. Cacioppo
John T. Cacioppo, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized expert on social and emotional influences on brain, behavioral, and biological processes, is the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor and Director of the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at The University of Chicago.
At the University of Chicago, John also is the Founding Director of the university-wide Arete Initiative of the Office of Research and National Laboratories. He is a past-president of the Association for Psychological Science and the Chair-Elect of the Psychology Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
More than 20 years ago, John began working with Gary Berntson of the University of Ohio to pioneer a new field they called “social neuroscience.” This is an interdisciplinary attempt to trace how social forces “get under the skin” to affect physiology, as well as how physiology influences social interactions. John’s recent research on loneliness, conducted in collaboration with Louise Hawkley, Ron Thisted, and Linda Waite, has raised questions about one of the pillars of modern medicine and psychology—the focus on the individual as the broadest appropriate unit of inquiry.
By employing brain scans, monitoring of autonomic and neuroendocrine processes, and assays of immune function, John an his colleagues have found that the influence of social context is so strong that it can alter genetic expression in white blood cells. This research also showed how the subjective sense of social isolation (“loneliness”) uniquely disrupts our perceptions, behavior, and physiology, becoming a trap that not only reinforces isolation, but can lead to early death.
University of Chicago Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience
University of Chicago Department of Psychology
University of Chicago Department of Psychology
