People who need people: Trait loneliness influences positive affect as a function of interpersonal context

• Published in: Biological psychology 2018-07, Vol.136, p.181-188
• Main Authors: Ditcheva, Maria, Vrshek-Schallhorn, Suzanne, Batista, Anna
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cortisol; Loneliness; Negative affect; Positive affect; Reaffiliation; Social monitoring system; Trier Social Stress Test
• ISSN: 0301-0511; 1873-6246
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2018.05.014

Interest subfacet of positive affect as a function of time, trait loneliness level, and lab-based social threat condition. Note. Regression analyses use dimensional loneliness; mean values from groups are used only to depict findings. UCLA Loneliness Scale-III values less than −1 standard deviation (SD) indicate lower trait loneliness (Low Lonely), −1 to +1 SD values indicate moderate trait loneliness (Mid Lonely), and values greater than +1 SD indicate higher trait loneliness (High Lonely). [Display omitted] •Loneliness models suggest social context moderates its effect on cortisol & affect.•Loneliness will predict higher cortisol & negative affect response with audience.•An interaction on positive affect was robust for its subfacet Interest.•Loneliness predicted more Interest reactivity with an audience, but less if alone.•Results support a social monitoring model of loneliness. Trait loneliness is associated with negative health consequences; understanding involved processes may elucidate its contributory role. Evolutionary and reaffiliative models associate loneliness with negative affect and dysregulated cortisol responding, while the social monitoring system model associates loneliness with heightened salience of social cues. We hypothesized that loneliness would be associated with greater negative affect and cortisol reactivity, comparing a negative-evaluative audience Trier Social Stress Test (“audience condition;” n = 55) versus a no-audience control condition (n = 69) in non-depressed young adults. Opposing hypotheses, multilevel growth curve models indicated that loneliness was not associated with negative affect or cortisol reactivity in the audience versus no-audience condition. Loneliness was, however, associated with greater positive affect reactivity in the audience versus no-audience condition. In particular, the positive affect subfacet “Interest” was heightened in the audience condition but blunted in the no-audience condition as a function of loneliness, echoing a social monitoring system model of loneliness.