The acceptance of lonely others: effects of loneliness and gender of the target person and loneliness of the perceiver.

The reactions of lonely people toward other lonely people and the relationship between loneliness and self-concepts were examined. The 2-way and 3-way interaction effects showed that low lonely perceivers reacted more negatively toward the lonely target person. The relationship between loneliness and self-concept was examined using a multidimensional measure of self-concept. Results showed that loneliness correlated negatively with self-concept. In multiple regression analyses, the most significant predictors of loneliness were self-concept of relations with same gender and opposite gender peers and general self-concept.