When Hospitality Hides Loneliness |
Written by Hans Rocha IJzerman, Duygu Taşfiliz, and Seher Sav.
"It is a beautiful feeling that allows you to discover new things, but it also makes you feel very unhappy and lonely."
This paradoxical description comes from a research participant in Türkiye in our multi-country investigation of social connection. In Türkiye—a culture synonymous with çay (tea) shared among friends and legendary hospitality—loneliness wears an unexpected face.
Türkiye reports high loneliness rates despite cultural traditions emphasizing warmth and connection. How does a society built on communal meals and the cultural value of komşuluk (neighborliness) produce such disconnection?
The answer challenges what we think we know about loneliness.
When we interviewed 45 people from Türkiye across different ages, regions, and loneliness levels, a pattern emerged that had nothing to do with social skills or cultural values.
"Türkiye is not a place where you can easily utilize coping mechanisms to cope with loneliness," one participant explained. "You can't have a hobby in Türkiye. Everything is very expensive and you don't have money. You can't meet new people because you don't have money. You can't go out; you can't take a course... Money is the beginning of everything, unfortunately."
Eight participants independently linked loneliness in Türkiye directly to worsening economic conditions. When survival requires multiple jobs, when inflation makes gathering unaffordable, when housing costs consume entire salaries, the material foundation for connection erodes. You can possess all the cultural warmth in the world, but without economic stability, hospitality becomes performance.
Participants identified Türkiye's political landscape and urbanization as actively producing loneliness. "Our government controls everything, interferes with everything... When it's restricted, people get scared, and we create an antisocial, apolitical society," one explained.
Another described how polarization........