Why Our Brains Need A Social Life, Conversation with Sarah Stein Lubrano,
3-4pm

As the world seems to grow more transactional, individualist, distrustful, and people spend more time alone behind screens, it’s revelatory to realise how this radically changes our brain and abilities. Research shows that social isolation leads to more social isolation, with the brain reshaping itself: social cues and opportunities become hard to notice, we become suspicious if not paranoid and lose the ability to socialise. “I prefer to be alone”, or “people cannot be trusted”... rings a bell?

This is social atrophy, the shrinking of people’s social brains as they increasingly withdraw from others. A vicious cycle. The bad news is that we may all be experiencing this to some degree without even noticing it. The good news is that we can actively overcome this.

Sarah Stein Lubrano delves into this, revealing the data on social atrophy, its sneaky side and the myths surrounding it, and ultimately showing why we need regular social contact to thrive. We need a shared social and political life and only through this kind of shared life can we also begin to do the work of improving the world.