Eiluned Pearce

TL;DR: It is argued that singing may have evolved to quickly bond large human groups of relative strangers, potentially through encouraging willingness to coordinate by enhancing positive affect, and represents the first evidence for an ‘ice-breaker effect' of singing in promoting fast cohesion between unfamiliar individuals.

TL;DR: It is suggested that laughter, through an endorphin-mediated opiate effect, may play a crucial role in social bonding and show that pain thresholds are significantly higher after laughter than in the control condition.

TL;DR: It is argued that, in the case of Neanderthals and AMHs, differences in the size of the body and visual system imply differences in organization between the same-sized brains of these two taxa, and possible implications of differing brain organization in terms of social cognition are discussed.

TL;DR: This article found that singing together fosters social closeness and feelings of inclusion, connectivity, positive affect, and measures of endorphin release all increased across singing rehearsals and that the influence of group singing was comparable for pain thresholds in the large versus small group context.

TL;DR: Irrespective of other social experiences, higher loneliness scores at baseline were associated with higher depression symptom severity scores during 12 years of follow-up among adults aged 50 years and older, suggesting that 11-18% of cases of depression could potentially be prevented if loneliness were eliminated.