The mere physical presence of another person reduces human autonomic responses to aversive sounds

Abstract

Social animals show reduced physiological responses to aversive events if a conspecific is physically present. Although humans are innately social, it is unclear whether the mere physical presence of another person is sufficient to reduce human autonomic responses to aversive events. In our study, participants experienced aversive and neutral sounds alone (alone treatment) or with an unknown person that was physically present without providing active support. The present person was a member of the participants' ethnical group (ingroup treatment) or a different ethnical group (outgroup treatment), inspired by studies that have found an impact of similarity on social modulation effects. We measured skin conductance responses (SCRs) and collected subjective similarity and affect ratings. The mere presence of an ingroup or outgroup person significantly reduced SCRs to the aversive sounds compared with the alone condition, in particular in participants with high situational anxiety. Moreover, the effect was stronger if participants perceived the ingroup or outgroup person as dissimilar to themselves. Our results indicate that the mere presence of another person was sufficient to diminish autonomic responses to aversive events in humans, and thus verify the translational validity of basic social modulation effects across different species.

Shared safety abolishes the recovery of learned threat

“…Nevertheless, to our knowledge, our work represents the first demonstration of social safety learning in a two-person situation with high ecological validity. The current set of findings extends recent research addressing the influence of physical presence on physiological responding to aversive stimuli (Qi et al, 2020) by addressing the influence of social modulation of threat in a safety learning context. More specifically, by focusing on safety learning, this work has relevance for understanding how social information can optimize standard, asocial safety learning procedure to augment the effects of exposure on previously acquired fears.…”

“…More specifically, previous experimental work in humans have demonstrated that acute physical (Roberts, Klatzkin, & Mechlin, 2015) and social stress (Heinrichs, Baumgartner, Kirschbaum, & Ehlert, 2003) result in significantly smaller elevations in heart rate, blood pressure, and cortisol in humans socially supported by another partner, compared to individuals who undergo stress alone. More recently, the mere presence of another partner was shown to reduce psychophysiological responses to aversive sounds, compared to an alone condition (Qi et al, 2020). The social buffering research has however almost exclusively focused on the social regulation of stress responses (Hostinar, Sullivan, & Gunnar, 2014) and little work has focused on how social information modulates learned threat memories or how social safety information is learned (but see also Ferreira et al, 2019).…”

Social buffering of human fear is shaped by gender, social concern and the presence of real vs virtual agents

“…There is evidence from animal models that autonomic (1,2) and neural (2)(3)(4)(5) fear responses are reduced in the presence of a conspecific, a phenomenon known as social buffering (6)(7)(8). Adapting the paradigms that were used to study social buffering in animals, recent studies have shown similar social buffering of autonomic fear responses in humans (9,10). These results showed that the mere presence of another individual can buffer fear in humans, similar to basic social modulation mechanisms observed in animals.…”

“…Given that it can attenuate physiological fear responses, the effects of social buffering on fear in humans is potentially relevant for the diagnosis and treatment of anxiety disorders. Strengthening this point, there is evidence that individuals who score higher on trait (13,14) or state (9,15) anxiety show a stronger reduction of fear responses in the presence of another individual as compared to less anxious individuals.…”

The Loss of the Shared Space: Process Issues in Telepsychotherapy

“…In humans, the mere presence of another person is sufficient to diminish autonomic responses to aversive events. 14 Developmentally, affect regulation is first performed by a responsive mother and only then acquired by the infant. The responsive caregiver’s emotionally expressive face triggers sympathetic and parasympathetic activity that is responsible for regulating affect.…”