[DocTomoe]

People without social connections die earlier statistically, but that can be explained by outside effects (e.g. if you do not live in a family structure, chances are you'll be found too late after suffering from a heart attack or stroke; less people around you means less immunisation for common diseases; no friends means a house fire may stress you out more and you becoming homeless ...). Calling that "most would be dying from no social connections" still seems a bit a far reach.

Also, the "we need to be around people at all times" seems to be less determined by genes, but by culture: people in other cultures and at other times seem to have been fine with extended periods of no human contact. Think the 'forest dwellers' in Hindu culture, or monastic hermits.

[havblue]

I wonder if the causation is reversed when people talk about living a shorter life with fewer social connections. If someone has mental health issues or substance abuse problems they're likely burning through their social connections and their health at the same time.

[93po]

To prove humans need social connection, all you have to do is look at the heartbreaking (and thankfully rare) cases of children that grew up completely neglected and sequestered. As in, locked in a room with no attention for the first decade of their life. When they're discovered, they're not what you think of as human. They never developed language. They never developed the ability to form relationships. They know nothing about the world and have virtually never interacted with anyone. There is no amount of therapy that will ever turn these young people into functional humans and in the case I remember most vividly, they will never develop any real language or ability to communicate either.

[yamazakiwi]

Your argument is different from your explanation. You're speaking about complete isolation. Children need some socialization for them to adapt to the modern world. That's different than proving humans need social connections in the long term. Almost all people want some form of socialization, some less, some more. It's extremely rare a person would want complete isolation forever in perpetuity and I say that as a person who can only handle about an hour of socialization before I want to climb in a hole. What no one talks about is when too much socialization can impair growth.