Ren Dongning, Stavrova Olga
Department of Social Psychology, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
Int J Psychol. 2023 Apr;58(2):134-142. doi: 10.1002/ijop.12885. Epub 2022 Oct 28.
Solitude-the state of being alone without social interactions-is a common experience in everyday life. Despite that spending time alone can be enjoyable and functional, solitude is often stigmatised: People who engage in solitary activities are perceived negatively (negative perceptions of solitude) and anticipate a negative judgement from others (negative meta-perceptions of solitude). Using the COVID-19 pandemic as a backdrop, we examined whether a pandemic context, in which solitary behaviours were easily attributable to external reasons, would reduce people's negative perceptions and meta-perceptions of solitude. Across three preregistered experiments (total N = 767) conducted during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, we found that the presence (vs. absence) of a pandemic context attenuated both the negative meta-perceptions and the negative perceptions of solitude. Yet, people believed that the pandemic context produced a stronger shift away from the stigmatisation of solitude than it actually did. These findings revealed the limits of contextual cues in mitigating the negative perceptions of being alone-even when these cues were explicit and readily available. The current research sheds light on the potential challenges of destigmatising solitude.
独处——即没有社交互动的独自状态——是日常生活中的一种常见体验。尽管独自度过时光可能会令人愉悦且有益，但独处常常受到污名化：从事独自活动的人会被负面看待（对独处的负面认知），并预期会受到他人的负面评判（对独处的负面元认知）。以新冠疫情为背景，我们研究了在一种独处行为很容易归因于外部原因的疫情背景下，是否会减少人们对独处的负面认知和元认知。在新冠疫情第一波期间进行的三项预先注册的实验（总样本量N = 767）中，我们发现疫情背景的存在（与不存在相比）减弱了对独处的负面元认知和负面认知。然而，人们认为疫情背景使人们对独处污名化的转变比实际情况更为强烈。这些发现揭示了情境线索在减轻对独自状态的负面认知方面的局限性——即使这些线索是明确且容易获得的。当前的研究揭示了消除独处污名化的潜在挑战。
