Loneliness causes suffering, and suffering does inhibit empathy, or so I read once in a pop sci recounting of a study. It would also make sense that a lack of empathy feeds back into the loneliness by harming relationships. Cyclic determinism, why are you everywhere in life?
True. It's not a coincidence that they say: it's very lonely* up there.
There are some ways around this, but they are not easy, and perhaps even impossible.
(*=ironically and paradoxically,the cruelest dictator is also a very lonely person)