The Complexity of Social Trauma Diagnosis and Intervention

Adverse effects of empathy and cognitive inflexibility on social trauma

“…Recently, people have expressed feelings of fear, anxiety, and rejection when confronted with and witnessing the war (Avramchuk et al, 2022;Jawaid et al, 2022;Spiegel, 2022), frequently by sharing others' distress via AffEMP. Prolonged or repeated exposure to others' distress, helplessness, and humiliation in societal and cultural contexts can develop into social trauma (Hamburger, 2021;Neuner, 2022). CogEMP can further aggravate social trauma when faced with significant stigma, wherein perspective-taking becomes imprecise (i.e., empathic inaccuracy; Zaki et al, 2009;Ickes and Hodges, 2013).…”

“…Furthermore, some people have experienced extreme reactions following exposure to social media (e.g., anger and disgust; Cricenti et al, 2022). An increase in this type of empathy-related distress is associated with experiential avoidance and reduced flexible social cognition, which also entails social trauma (Hamburger, 2021;Neuner, 2022).…”

“…In the case of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other disorders such as social anxiety disorder (SAD), different types of threats can play crucial roles in their development (Erwin et al, 2006;Carleton et al, 2011). One such threat is social trauma (Hamburger, 2021).…”

“…Social trauma is defined as an individual's experience of being socially humiliated or rejected in interpersonal situations, which can severely endanger one's social integrity (Neuner, 2022). It is also characterized as a threat to societal and cultural groups to explain group-specific fears, which are frequently associated with emotional abuse, bullying, and persecution that can develop into guilt, self-blame, or anger (Hamburger, 2021). People who are exposed to negative social events sometimes perceive, experience, or appraise these events as threats, whereby core social motives can be violated (e.g., the need for social status and belonging), and they are often associated with intense affective reactions, including dread, despair, and defeat.…”

“…This process may allow for a flexible analysis of others' viewpoints (as well as that of oneself), and wholesome empathy and flexibility may subserve interpersonal understanding and social functioning (Decety, 2011). In other words, wholesome empathy and cognitive flexibility might play crucial roles in hindering social trauma by suppressing maladaptive negative thoughts about oneself and others (Bjornsson et al, 2020;Hamburger, 2021;Neuner, 2022). Indeed, reduced flexible emotion regulations, difficulty in shifting attention/perspectives, and concomitant rumination are reported among individuals with PTSD and SAD (Haruvi-Lamdan et al, 2018;Goodman et al, 2021), and such overlapping mechanisms might partly account for their shared vulnerability in social trauma.…”