Biography
Julianne Holt-Lunstad is a professor of psychology and neuroscience and director of the Social Connection & Health Lab at Brigham Young University. She is also the founding scientific chair and board member for the U.S. Foundation for Social Connection and the Global Initiative on Loneliness and Connection. Dr. Holt-Lunstad is an international scientific expert whose research focuses on the individual and population health effects, biological mechanisms, and effective strategies to mitigate risk and promote protection associated with social connection.
Research Interests
There is now robust evidence of the protective effects of social relationships both on morbidity and on mortality, with a magnitude of effect comparable with many well-established risk factors such as smoking cessation and obesity. Julianne Holt-Lunstad's program of research examines the influence of both the quantity and the quality of social relationships on long-term health and on risk for mortality, and the biological pathways (e.g., cardiovascular, neuroendocrine, genetic) by which such associations may occur. Dr. Holt-Lunstad also considers the potentially detrimental influence of negativity in close relationships (e.g., ambivalence, marital distress). Her studies have examined social relationships at a network level, among married couples, in mother-and-infant relationships, and within friendships. Dr. Holt-Lunstad's work is interdisciplinary and takes a multimethod approach including experimental, naturalistic, meta-analytic, and intervention studies.
See professor Julianne Holt-Lunstad's website here.
Professor Julianne Holt-Lunstad's research site can be found here.