the science

behind SHi

We are experiencing a crisis of connection, with only 17% of those under 30 in the United States feeling connected to at least one person.

As the World Health Organization quantified in a recent report, feelings of loneliness and isolation–and their direct impact on physical, economic, and mental health– represent a worldwide crisis. In his 2023 Advisory, then Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned urgently of the dangers a lack of social connection poses for both individual and societal health. 

The science of human connection brings together the research across disciplines to reveal a five part story regarding the roots, consequences, and solutions to the crisis. The Social Health Institute was created to respond to our crisis of connection by providing one of the only known empirically-proven interventions for fostering the skills of relational intelligence necessary for human to human connection.  

part 1: our social nature

Research in the fields of developmental psychology, social neuroscience, primatology, and evolutionary anthropology has consistently indicated that we are social species who need each other to survive. The research data also suggests that we are born with the skills of emotional and relational intelligence necessary to have the type of relationships we need and want in order to thrive and survive. 

part 2: our anti-social culture

The human sciences including the fields of sociology, political science, economics, and history indicate that we live in an anti-social culture that perpetuates ideologies, hierarchies, and stereotypes that privilege the “me” over “we”, the self over the other, independence over interdependence, autonomy over connection, and money over people. Thus it is a culture that clashes with our nature. 

part 3: the crisis of connection

The developmental and health sciences have indicated that this culture/nature clash leads to social, mental, and physical health problems.

part 4: the consequences of the crisis

Research also indicates that the culture/nature clash has behavioral consequences as well that include substance use, eating disorders, suicide, and all forms of violence.

part 5: the solutions to the crisis

The first and second parts of this empirically driven five-part story suggest that the solutions lie with creating a pro-social culture that nourishes our nature rather than gets in the way. The Social Health Institute aims to build social health around the world through teaching this framework in conjunction with our method of transformative interviewing. Our method is empirically proven to foster social and emotional skills and wellbeing, academic engagement, and a sense of a common humanity across diverse communities.