Reconnecting in the Face of Exclusion: Individuals with High Social Anxiety May Feel the Push of Social Pain, but not the Pull of Social Rewards

Abstract

Background Previous research has shown that high levels of trait social anxiety (SA) disrupt the social repair processes following a painful social exclusion, but the cognitive mechanisms involved in these processes and how trait SA may disrupt them remain unknown. Methods We conducted a preregistered study on Prolific participants ( N = 452) who were assigned to experience either social exclusion or inclusion and were then exposed to follow-up opportunities for social reconnection. Results Moderated mediation analyses revealed that irrespective of levels of SA, participants responded to social pain with heightened approach motivation and greater downstream positive affect. Exploratory analyses revealed that heightened desire to affiliate was driven by increased curiosity and attention to social rewards. Moreover, higher SA was associated with lower overall desire to affiliate and this relationship between SA and affiliation was mediated by diminished reward responsiveness. Conclusions Findings highlight the roles of goal pursuit and social reward responsiveness in social repair and how high levels of trait SA may disrupt these processes. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10608-021-10263-z.

Towards quantitative cognitive-behavioural models of psychopathology: An active inference account of social anxiety disorder

“…Furthermore, clinical examinations showed that individuals with SAD lacked motivation towards social rewards 108 . If the predicted reward value from a positive social outcome is substantially smaller compared to the potential social loss, individuals may choose avoidance behaviours 109,110 . Thus, our third factor (a pair) was altered social reward and loss processing, encoded in SocGain and SocLoss respectively.…”

Social Exclusion and Social Anxiety Disorder: The Temporal Need-threat Model of Ostracism

“…Fung and Alden [30] show that the intensity of social pain after the initial social exclusion could mediate the anxiety level of participants who experience subsequent social interaction. For individuals with higher social anxiety, their social repair is less than average social anxiety level individual after social exclusion, suggesting they might be less functional to release the negative effect of social pain, have a higher possibility to carry more weight of their past painful social event [31]. These effects could elevate and maintain the higher level of social anxiety and keep susceptible individuals more vulnerable within social situations.…”

“…They tend to protect themselves by socially withdrawing [37]. Hudd [38] explained that the reaction of high social anxiety individuals might be because they are more sensitive to threats (e.g., excessive attention and responsivity to threat signals), and this overactive threat-avoidance motivation system could drive their behaviour within interpersonal situations. Besides, there are fewer rewards for high social anxiety individuals to reconnect to others.…”

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