The shelf · Living alone and single life
Does Single at Heart hold up?
Single at Heart: The Power, Freedom, and Heart-Filling Joy of Single Life, by Bella DePaulo (2023)
Profiles people for whom single life is their most authentic way of living, drawing on the author's online survey of more than 20,000 people.
The short answer
Partly. Married couples do turn inward, but the claim that the 'single at heart' are less lonely rests on the author's own self-selected survey.
The claims, checked
Couples who move in together or marry tend to see friends and family less.
Holds with conditions Sarkisian and Gerstel (2016) found married adults the least connected to relatives, friends and neighbours, after controls. US snapshot data only.
Evidence: Sarkisian and Gerstel, 2016
People who are 'single at heart' report less loneliness at every age.
Contested The evidence is the author's own self-selected online survey. Official data for England show single and widowed people at higher risk of loneliness on average. No independent test of the subgroup exists.
Evidence: Office for National Statistics, 2018