The effects of trait social anxiety on affective and behavioral reactions to others' resource allocations

Affective forecasting and psychopathology: A scoping review

Affective forecasting - estimations of future emotional reactions - is an important aspect of future thinking that informs judgement and decision making. Biases in affective forecasting have been noted generally and with people with emotional disturbances specifically. Still, the role of affective forecasting within models of psychopathology has received little attention. Given the state of the literature, a scoping review method was adopted to summarize and synthesize the methodological approaches used in measuring affective forecasting within the context of psychopathology and the scope of the evidence on this association. Three databases were searched for research published on or before November 13th, 2023. Original quantitative research that examined affective forecasting and its association with psychopathology was reviewed. Data were charted using a form designed for this study. Overall, the review highlights the heterogeneity in operationalization of affective forecasting. The majority of the evidence supports an association between severity of psychopathology and intensity of affective forecasts, with notable exceptions, which are discussed within the scope of methodology and operationalization of affective forecasting. This remains an important process to investigate in information processing models of psychopathology to elucidate its role in the development and maintenance of psychopathology and potential as a target for intervention.

Threat-induced anxiety and selfishness in resource sharing: Behavioral and neural evidence

In real life, it is not unusual that we face potential threats (i.e., physical stimuli and environments that may cause harm or danger) with other individuals together, yet it remains largely unknown how threat-induced anxious feelings influence prosocial behaviors such as resource sharing. In this study, we investigated this question by combining functional magnetic resonance imaging and a novel paradigm. Together with an anonymous partner, each participant faced the possibility of receiving a 10-s noise administration, which had a low or high probability to be a threat (i.e., the intensity of noise can induce a high level of unpleasantness). Each participant first reported her/his immediate feeling of anxiety about the current situation (being threatened by the unpleasant noise), then decided how to split a number of resources (which could relieve the noise) between her/him and the partner. Behavioral results revealed that the participants showed a selfish bias in the threat conditions than in the safe conditions, and that self-reported anxiety feeling significantly predicted this bias. Functional magnetic resonance imaging results revealed that: (1) the activation level of the anterior insula was correlated with self-reported anxiety and (2) the connectivity between the anterior insula and the temporoparietal junction was sensitive to the modulating effect of anxiety on the selfish bias. These findings indicate the neural correlates of the association between threat-induced anxiety and prosocial tendencies in social interactions.

Positive Self-Disclosure on Social Network Sites and Adolescents' Friendship Quality: The Mediating Role of Positive Feedback and the Moderating Role of Social Anxiety

In the current information age, SNSs (Social Network Sites) have been popular among young adolescents, and have also become a main manner to maintain social relationships. Against this background, based on relevant evidence, the present study aimed to examine the association between positive self-disclosure on SNSs and adolescents' friendship quality, as well as the underlying mechanism-the potential mediating role of perceived positive feedback and the moderating role of social anxiety. A sample of 1713 adolescents aged 11 to 19 was recruited to participate in this study, to complete a set of scales. Results indicated that positive self-disclosure on SNSs was positively associated with adolescents' friendship quality, and positive feedback significantly mediated the association between self-disclosure positivity and friendship quality. This mediating effect, moderated by social anxiety, could significantly moderate the mediating effect of positive feedback; specifically, compared with higher social anxiety adolescents, the association between positive self-disclosure and positive feedback was stronger among individuals with lower social anxiety. These findings may expand previous studies, with several theoretical and practical implications.

Peer pressure: Conformity outweighs reciprocity in social anxiety

Social anxiety (SA) is characterized by a persistent fear of negative evaluation and marked difficulties in forming social relationships. Concerned with falling short of standards, the socially anxious make important efforts to obtain approval within their group. In the current research, we extended previous findings on excessive conformity in social anxiety, by quantifying the indirect effect of social anxiety-related conformity on unrelated third parties. Two hundred and eleven participants were assigned to one of 6 subgroups based on SA cutoffs and experimental condition. Participants first interacted in a Survival task together with 5 other participants (group of reference), and then completed a monetary Prisoner's Dilemma session against an unrelated and cooperative Person B. Prior to being asked to split the allocated $10, participants were presented with their reference group's proposed split of the money and also with Person B's proposed amount to each member of the group. Depending on experimental condition, group members were made to appear either as fair or highly unfair, while Person B was always fair. Participants were thus given two alternatives: reciprocate fairness or conform to unfairness. Our results show that high SA individuals tend to align to the group's unfair behavior, even though conformity, in this case, is to mistreat an otherwise well-intentioned stranger. Intriguingly, while the general population follows the norms of reciprocity, for the high SA participants, conformity to the group behavior outweighs prosocial reciprocity. Taken together, our findings show that individuals high in SA are more compliant to the group's demands.