DAN Faculty in the News
Professor Julie Aitken Schermer was interviewed for PsyPost on her research into loneliness and personality traits. An excerpt from the PsyPost article follows:
Genetic Factors may play an important role in loneliness
The relationship between loneliness and certain personality traits may be due in part to shared genetic factors, according to a new study in the Journal of Research in Personality.
Though environmental factors unique to each participant in the study appeared to play a bigger role overall, a substantial proportion of the variation in loneliness was related to genetic influences.
“I am interested in the construct of loneliness because I feel that we, as a society, are becoming lonelier. In the United Kingdom, the government appointed a new Minister of Loneliness in 2018. That is the only country that I know of with such a government position,” said study author Julie Aitken Schermer of The University of Western Ontario.
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