The drive to interact with others is one of the strongest motivational forces humans experience. Indeed, as the psychologist Matthew Lieberman explains in his 2013 book, Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect, the social networks in our brains are connected to our pain systems, creating the intense heartbreak we feel when someone close to us dies, or the total desolation we experience when isolated from human interaction for too much time. “These social adaptations are central to making us the most successful species on earth,” Lieberman writes.16
