Through the Looking Glass: Investigating Cognitive Biases in Loneliness using Virtual Reality

Kıyak, Ceyda (2025) Through the Looking Glass: Investigating Cognitive Biases in Loneliness using Virtual Reality. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

Loneliness is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon with adverse consequences for both physical and mental health. Despite growing attention, the mechanisms underlying loneliness remain insufficiently understood. Hence, this PhD thesis aimed to integrate theoretical, psychological, cognitive, behavioural, and methodological perspectives to advance the scientific understanding of loneliness. Chapter 1 provided multidisciplinary introduction to loneliness by synthesising evolutionary, neuroscientific, cognitive-behavioural and social frameworks. Chapter 2 systematically reviewed previous experimental studies on cognitive biases in loneliness, particularly attention, interpretation and approach-avoidance biases, which identified critical methodological, empirical, population and evidence gaps. Chapter 3 employed multivariate modelling to examine sociodemographic, psychological, behavioural and social predictors of loneliness, highlighting alexithymia as a potential central driver, with depression and social anxiety acting as associated mechanisms; avoidance as a behavioural pathway and interpersonal trust as a critical protective factor in loneliness-related processes. Chapter 4 investigated attention and interpretation biases in facial emotion processing across ages, adolescent, young, middle age and older adults, in loneliness providing novel contributions on age-specific differences in those biases while also providing partial support for current cognitive models of loneliness. Chapter 5 extended the understanding of cognitive biases by examining real-time approach-avoidance behaviours towards emotional stimuli in ecologically valid immersive virtual reality environment, offering novel insights into the behavioural avoidance tendencies of lonely individuals. Chapter 6 integrated behavioural and physiological measures within a virtual reality paradigm to explore interpersonal distance and heart rate variability, demonstrating that loneliness was associated with increased interpersonal distance during social observation, and lower heart rate variability during social engagement which ultimately offered novel understanding of loneliness. Chapter 7 collectively refined the findings, and presented “The Cascade Model of Loneliness”, establishing loneliness as a dynamic biopsychosocial process with cognitive, behavioural and physiological mechanisms, paving the way for both scientific innovation and translational impact in addressing one of the most pressing public health challenges of our time.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Depositing User:	Chris White
Date Deposited:	19 Mar 2026 09:13
Last Modified:	19 Mar 2026 09:13
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/102473
DOI:

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