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Loneliness and Discounting   Many persons use the terms loneliness and being alone as interchangeable.  The first is missing an emotional connection with the people in one's environment.  The second is not having other humans or living things around self. Being alone is easily changed: add people or pets.  Loneliness is a more complex combination of factors to effectively connect with others such as self-esteem, interpersonal skills, emotional life history, etc. Feelings of loneliness are more difficult to change and are less noticeable to people in our world.     Discounting behavior is when we view someone (ourselves of another) as being of less value. Full value perceptions are often learned early with our childhood history.   Society encourages us to accept common standards as to what is or is not valuable.   We are encouraged to seek full-valued people in our friends, jobs, social organizations, life goals, etc.    Discounted persons receive fewer gifts like our attention.  These judgments of value seem to be seldom questioned and re-evaluated after they become habitual.