Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, United States of America.
The Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2018 Jul 5;13(7):e0199146. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0199146. eCollection 2018.
Given research suggesting that social interactions are beneficial, it is unclear why individuals lower in extraversion engage less in social interactions. In this study, we test whether individuals lower in extraversion reap fewer hedonic rewards from social interactions and explore social psychological processes that explain their experiences. Before participants socialized, we measured extraversion, state positive affect, cognitive capacity, and expectations about the social interactions. After participants socialized with one another, we measured state positive affect and cognitive capacity again as well as fear of negative evaluation and belief in limited cognitive capacity. Participants also rated the social skillfulness of each interaction partner. We found that less extraverted individuals expect to feel worse after socializing. However, all but those extremely low in extraversion (17% of sample) actually experience an increase in positive affect after socializing. Surprisingly, those low in extraversion did not show reduced cognitive capacity after socializing. Although they are more likely to believe that cognitive capacity is limited and to be fearful of negative evaluation, these characteristics did not explain the social experience of those low in extraversion.
鉴于研究表明社交互动有益，那么为什么那些外向程度较低的人参与的社交互动较少，这一点就令人费解。在这项研究中，我们检验了那些外向程度较低的人是否从社交互动中获得较少的享乐回报，并探讨了可以解释他们体验的社会心理过程。在参与者进行社交之前，我们测量了外向程度、状态积极情绪、认知能力和对社交互动的期望。在参与者彼此社交之后，我们再次测量了状态积极情绪和认知能力，以及对负面评价的恐惧和对有限认知能力的信念。参与者还对每个互动伙伴的社交技巧进行了评价。我们发现，不那么外向的人预期社交后感觉会更糟。然而，除了那些极度内向的人（样本的 17%）之外，实际上在社交后积极情绪确实有所增加。令人惊讶的是，那些内向程度较低的人在社交后并没有表现出认知能力下降。尽管他们更有可能认为认知能力有限，并担心负面评价，但这些特征并不能解释那些内向程度较低的人的社交体验。
