Attachment buffers the physiological impact of social exclusion

Abstract

Attachment systems facilitate coping with stress, with previous studies demonstrating attachment figures diminishing subjective, behavioral and neural responses to social pain. Yet little is known about the physiological mechanisms governing this benefit in the context of social exclusion. This study investigated the impact of attachment (vs non-attachment) priming on affective and cardiovascular responses to social exclusion induced by the computerized “Cyberball” ball-tossing game, and the moderating influence of individual differences in attachment style, rejection sensitivity and self-construal. No significant change in high frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV)–an index of parasympathetic activity and cardiovagal balance–was observed across the time course in the attachment priming condition, whereas the non-attachment condition showed significant fluctuation in HF-HRV–increasing during Cyberball and decreasing relative to baseline during recovery. Moreover, the benefit afforded by attachment priming on was enhanced amongst participants with lower rejection sensitivity and higher collectivistic self-construal, and those with higher anxious attachment style in the non-attachment prime group showed a trend towards increased HF-HRV during the Cyberball. Results are consistent with Social Baseline Theory, which argues that social proximity–particularly from attachment figures–protects against the metabolic costs associated with strong reactions to stress, including the preservation of cardiovagal homeostasis in this instance. Social attachments may provide an important mechanism to increase adaptive responding to the distressing experience of social exclusion.

Cultural Differences in Interpersonal Emotion Regulation

“…Outliers were then replaced by either the maximum (three standard deviations above the mean) or minimum integer (three standard deviations below the mean; comprising 1.89% of the total transformed data). This method is commonly used in psychophysiological studies to prevent outliers from unduly influencing statistical outcomes but also to retain the overall distribution in the data (Howell, 1998; Laborde et al, 2017; Liddell and Courtney, 2018). Next, difference scores were calculated for HF-HRV and HR comparing each of the active phases to the baseline phase (prime phase = priming phase – baseline; emotion reactivity phase = image exposure phase – baseline; and recovery phase = recovery phase – baseline).…”

“…If HRV is low, this indicates a system that is less adaptive with reduced regulation capacity. In experimental studies, measuring HRV is a useful indicator of the physiological benefit of engaging in various ER strategies (Appelhans and Luecken, 2006; Denson et al, 2011; Quintana et al, 2012; Geisler et al, 2013; Liddell and Courtney, 2018).…”

Distress and Retaliatory Aggression in Response to Witnessing Intergroup Exclusion are Greater on Higher Levels of Collective Narcissism

“…Moreover, low HF HRV was associated with negative affect in a large study (Sloan et al, 2017) and HF HRV was found to decrease in response to stressful situations (Balzarotti et al, 2017). Given that decreased HF HRV has been used as an index of negative emotionality or distress in various contexts (including Collective narcissism and distress of exclusion interpersonal exclusion research relevant to this article, Liddell & Courtney, 2018), we used this psychophysiological index in our study.…”

High Rejection Sensitivity in Patients With Somatoform Pain Disorder

“…One review ( 12 ) also demonstrated that social support has been associated with lower levels of perceived physical pain. As it is known that dimensions of insecure attachment moderate the relationship between social support and (mental and physical) health ( 54 , 55 ), the attachment patterns should be considered according to the therapeutic treatment. Furthermore, insecure-attached individuals are sensitive to social rejection, regardless of the presence of SPD.…”