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When New York-based graphic designers and long-time friends Timothy Goodman and Jessica Walsh found themselves single at the same time, they decided to try an experiment. The old adage says that it takes 40 days to change a habit--could the same be said for love? So they agreed to date each other for 40 days, record their experiences in questionnaires, photographs, videos, texts, and artworks, and post the material on a website they would create for this purpose. What began as a small experiment between two friends became an Internet sensation, drawing 5 million unique (and obsessed) visitors from around the globe to their site and their story since it was launched in July 2013

Objective: To investigate associations between the characteristics of the neighbourhoods young adults live in and their feelings of loneliness, using data from different sources. Method: Data were drawn from the Environmental Risk Longitudinal Twin Study. Loneliness was measured via self-reports at ages 12 and 18, and also by interviewer ratings at age 18. Neighbourhood characteristics were assessed between ages 12 and 18 via government data, systematic social observations, a resident survey, and participants' self-reports. Results: Greater loneliness was associated with perceptions of lower collective efficacy and greater neighbourhood disorder, but not with more objective measures of neighbourhood characteristics. Lonelier individuals perceived the collective efficacy of their neighbourhoods to be lower than did their less lonely siblings who lived at the same address. Conclusion: These findings suggest that feelings of loneliness are associated with negatively-biased perceptions of neighbourhood characteristics, which may have implications for lonely individuals' likelihood of escaping loneliness. Keywords: loneliness, social isolation, neighbourhood, collective efficacy, social cohesion

In this study, we investigated associations between the characteristics of the neighborhoods in which young adults live and their feelings of loneliness, using data from different sources. Participants were drawn from the Environmental Risk Longitudinal Twin Study. Loneliness was measured via self-reports at ages 12 and 18 years and also by interviewer ratings at age 18. Neighborhood characteristics were assessed between the ages of 12 and 18 via government data, systematic social observations, a resident survey, and participants' self-reports. Greater loneliness was associated with perceptions of lower collective efficacy and greater neighborhood disorder but not with more objective measures of neighborhood characteristics. Lonelier individuals perceived the collective efficacy of their neighborhoods to be lower than did their less lonely siblings who lived at the same address. These findings suggest that feelings of loneliness are associated with negatively biased perceptions of neighborhood characteristics, which may have implications for lonely individuals' likelihood of escaping loneliness.