Increasing Social Engagement Among Lonely Individuals: The Role of Acceptance Cues and Promotion Motivations

Abstract

Lonely individuals typically fear negative evaluation and engage in overly cautious social behaviors that perpetuate their social isolation. Recent research has found analogous security-oriented (i.e., prevention-focused) responses following experiences highlighting concerns with social loss but differing growth-oriented (i.e., promotion-focused ) responses, such as attempts at social engagement, following experiences highlighting concerns with social gain. The present studies thus investigated whether fostering a promotion focus among lonely individuals through subtle primes of acceptance could reduce their self-protective social avoidance. This hypothesis was supported across four studies in which the links between primed acceptance and promotion-focused motivations were first established, and the impact of such primes on lonely individuals' social thoughts, intentions, and behaviors were then tested. Implications of observed differences between effects of acceptance primes on lonely versus nonlonely individuals are discussed in terms of deficits versus satiation with feelings of belonging.

When the going gets tough: Grit predicts costly perseverance

“…Considering the benefits of grit, we might envision interventions that strengthen these mechanisms: in the face of failure, individuals could focus on and foster positive emotional reactions and expectations. Indeed, under conditions of threat, inducing individuals to focus on positives increases engagement in difficult social interactions (Lucas, Knowles, Gardner, Molden, & Jefferis, 2010;Richeson & Trawalter, 2005). These findings where simple primes impact behavior in real-life situations are heartening, as only small modifications may be needed to shift emotions and expectations to thereby increase persistence when people face the fear of failure.…”

The Lonelier, the More Conservative? A Research about Loneliness and Risky Decision-Making

“…To this end, two hundred and fifty participants finished gambling game via either pen-paper or PC and it appears that those who feel lonelier generally less likely to take risks, which is in line with our expectations. Basically, loners are more sensitive to fear-evoking cues as well as possible loss (Masi et al, 2013;Hawkley & Cacioppo, 2010;Vohs, Baumeister, & Chin, 2007), which lead them to a prevention focused mind-set (Lucas et al, 2010). For example, they prefer online relationships rather than in real because in order to minimize anxiety or they are less engaged in workplace due to over self-protection.…”

“…In addition, experimental evidences also found that isolation or rejection would result in dysfunction of hippocampus and prefrontal cortex or overreactions of neural system (Will et al, 2016;Silva-Gomez et al, 2003), which reflected a certain adaption of persistent hyper vigilance on isolated individuals. Accordingly, the feeling of loneliness is able to strengthen the perception of fear provoking cues and lead to a preventive focused mind-set (Lucas et al, 2010). As has been noted in regulatory focused theory, individuals would be motivated to do things they "feel right about", hence, those who aim to seek safety and minimize potential loss would probably stay in preventive orientation towards uncertainties (Higgins, 1997).…”

“…For example, although lonely people desire to repair negative feelings and rebuild social contacts, many of them fail due to the overcautious strategies towards social activities (Masi et al, 2013;Lucas, Knowles, Gardner, Molden, & Jefferis, 2010). In other word, they are more concerned to prevent against being rejected, even at the risk of staying isolated.…”

“…In contrast from some early hypotheses, both being excluded and fear of being excluded increase attention to facial and vocal expressions, thus, lonely individuals are better at understanding social signals as well as emotions of others (Cheung & Gardner, 2015;Sacco, Wirth, Hugenberg, Chen, & Williams, 2011), so the underperformance in social activities more likely stems from cognitive problems rather than a lack of ability. Accordingly, Lucas et al (2010) explained the poor social condition of loners based on the excessive fear of negative evaluation and extreme loss of confidence.…”