A Ten Month Antarctic Study Found Too Much Contact Strained Crew Members as Much as Isolation

Antarctic researchers gather closely inside a remote station. (Credit: Editorial Illustration via AI)

Crew members who spent the most time in close physical proximity to their colleagues during a ten-month Antarctic winter were the ones more likely to report conflict, growing mistrust, and reduced performance.

That result runs against the intuition governing most thinking about isolated groups, which treats loneliness as the problem and companionship as the remedy.