School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
Ann Behav Med. 2023 Nov 16;57(12):1069-1080. doi: 10.1093/abm/kaad056.
Socially observing a negative treatment-related experience has been shown to modulate our own experience with the same intervention, leading to worsened health outcomes. However, whether this social learning generalizes to similar but distinct interventions has not been explored nor what manipulations can reduce these effects.
To determine whether socially acquired nocebo effects can be generated by observing a negative experience with a similar, but distinct intervention, and whether choice can reduce these effects.
Across three experiments, a community sample of healthy adults (N = 336) either watched a confederate report cybersickness to the same Virtual Reality (VR) activity they were assigned to (Social Modeling: Consistent); a similar, but different VR activity (Social Modeling: Inconsistent); or did not view the confederate (No Social Modeling). Participants were either given choice over the VR (Choice) or assigned by the experimenter (No Choice).
Across the experiments, there was significantly greater cybersickness in both Social Modeling groups relative to No Social Modeling, while the two Social Modeling groups did not differ. There was no significant effect of Choice or a Choice by Social Modeling interaction. Social Modeling elicited greater anxiety and expectancies for cybersickness. Furthermore, these mechanisms mediated the association between social modeling and cybersickness.
Socially acquired side-effects were demonstrated to generalize to similar, but distinct interventions, highlighting the diffuse and robust effect social modeling can have on our experiences. However, choice did not attenuate the experience of cybersickness, highlighting the need for alternative methods to counteract the effect of social modeling.
观察到与负面治疗相关的经历会影响我们自身对同一干预措施的体验，从而导致健康状况恶化。然而，这种社会学习是否会推广到类似但不同的干预措施，以及哪些干预措施可以减少这种影响，尚未得到探索。
确定通过观察类似但不同干预措施的负面体验，是否可以产生社会习得的负面效应，以及选择是否可以减少这些效应。
在三个实验中，一组来自社区的健康成年人（N=336）要么观看一个同伙报告他们被分配到的相同虚拟现实（VR）活动中的晕动病（社交模仿：一致）；要么观看类似但不同的 VR 活动（社交模仿：不一致）；要么不观看同伙（无社交模仿）。参与者要么有选择 VR 的机会（选择），要么由实验者分配（无选择）。
在三个实验中，与无社交模仿组相比，在社交模仿组中，晕动病的发生率明显更高，而两个社交模仿组之间没有差异。选择或社交模仿的选择交互对结果没有显著影响。社交模仿引起了更大的焦虑和对晕动病的预期。此外，这些机制介导了社会模仿与晕动病之间的关联。
证明了社会习得的副作用可以推广到类似但不同的干预措施，突出了社会模仿对我们体验的广泛而有力的影响。然而，选择并不能减轻晕动病的体验，这突出了需要寻找替代方法来抵消社会模仿的影响。
