Restrepo Anita, Smith Karen E, Silver Emily M, Norman Greg
Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, USA.
Cogn Emot. 2025 May;39(3):693-703. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2024.2385006. Epub 2024 Aug 2.
For social species, having strong and high-quality social relationships is an important safety cue. Loneliness occurs when an individual perceives they have insufficient relationships resulting in feelings of lack of safety. States of perceived unsafety are linked to an increased tendency to construe ambiguous information - information lacking a unique clear interpretation - as threatening. Here, we explore whether the ambiguity of social cues of interpersonal rejection moderates effects of loneliness on feelings of rejection while undergoing social exclusion. Data were collected in 2021; 144 adults completed a progressive social exclusion paradigm where they were randomly assigned to be equally included, excluded, or over-included. Social exclusion/inclusion cues became more pronounced over the course of multiple rounds of a ball-tossing game (Cyberball) resulting in a scenario where ambiguity was highest in earlier rounds and decreased over time. Participants reported feelings of loneliness prior to the task and feelings of rejection throughout the task. Results demonstrated that higher loneliness predicted increased feelings of rejection regardless of exclusion condition. Notably, this positive relationship was strongest during earlier rounds when social cues were most ambiguous. These findings contribute to our understanding of how loneliness modulates social perception to enable organisms to adequately adapt to changing circumstances.
对于社会性物种而言，拥有牢固且高质量的社会关系是一种重要的安全信号。当个体察觉到自己的人际关系不足，从而产生缺乏安全感的感觉时，孤独感就会出现。察觉到不安全的状态与将模糊信息（即缺乏明确唯一解释的信息）理解为具有威胁性的倾向增加有关。在此，我们探讨人际排斥的社会线索的模糊性是否会调节孤独感在经历社会排斥时对排斥感的影响。数据于2021年收集；144名成年人完成了一个渐进式社会排斥范式，他们被随机分配为平等地被接纳、被排斥或被过度接纳。在多轮抛球游戏（网络球游戏）过程中，社会排斥/接纳线索变得更加明显，导致出现一种情况，即在前几轮中模糊性最高，且随着时间推移而降低。参与者在任务前报告了孤独感，并在整个任务过程中报告了排斥感。结果表明，无论排斥条件如何，更高程度的孤独感预示着排斥感的增加。值得注意的是，这种正相关关系在社会线索最模糊的早期轮次中最为强烈。这些发现有助于我们理解孤独感如何调节社会认知，以使生物体能够充分适应不断变化的环境。
