CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 339Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive ProcessesDeath Anxiety and Social ExclusionHealth disparities and outcomes

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 19 of the 19 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

It is all in their mind: A review on information processing bias in lonely individuals

Spithoven, Annette W.M., Bijttebier, Patricia, Goossens, Luc·2017·Clinical Psychology Review
DOI 10.1016/j.cpr.2017.10.003
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Loneliness is a distressing emotional state that motivates individuals to renew and maintain social contact. It has been suggested that lonely individuals suffer from a cognitive bias towards social threatening stimuli. However, current models of loneliness remain vague on how this cognitive bias is expressed in lonely individuals. The current review provides an up-to-date overview of studies examining loneliness in relation to various aspects of cognitive functioning. These studies are interpreted in light of the Social Information Processing (SIP) model. A wide range of studies indicate that lonely individuals have a negative cognitive bias in all stages of SIP. More specifically, lonely individuals have an increased attention for social threatening stimuli, hold negative and hostile intent attributions, expect rejection, evaluate themselves and others negatively, endorse less promotion- and more prevention-oriented goals, and have a low self-efficacy. This negative cognitive bias seems specific to the social context. Avenues for future research and implications for clinical practice are discussed.

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.cpr.2017.10.003

Cites

19 of 19 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • The results strongly support the theoretical framework suggesting that negative biases have a detrimental effect on social interactions in loneliness, as impaired interpersonal trust significantly correlated with a preference for larger interpersonal distance and reduced positive mood after the positive social interaction.

    “our results strongly support theoretical framework suggesting that negative biases have a detrimental effect on social interactions in loneliness,[ 11 ] as impaired interpersonal trust significantly correlated with a preference for larger interpersonal distance and reduced positive mood after the positive social interaction.”

    From Loneliness and the Social Brain: How Perceived Social Isolation Impairs Human Interactions (2021) · cites this paper as [11]

  • Preliminary evidence indicates that interpersonal trust is reduced in lonely individuals.

    “preliminary evidence indicates that interpersonal trust is reduced in lonely individuals.[ 11 ]”

    From Loneliness and the Social Brain: How Perceived Social Isolation Impairs Human Interactions (2021) · cites this paper as [11]

  • Preliminary evidence supports the notion of reduced interpersonal trust as a risk factor for rather than a consequence of loneliness.

    “Although preliminary evidence supports the notion of reduced interpersonal trust as a risk factor for rather than a consequence of loneliness,[ 11 ]”

    From Loneliness and the Social Brain: How Perceived Social Isolation Impairs Human Interactions (2021) · cites this paper as [11]

Citations

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 72

  1. Asher, 1984, Loneliness in children, Child Development, 55, 1456, 10.2307/1130015 · DOI
  2. Akdoğan, 2017, A model proposal on the relationships between loneliness, insecure attachment, and inferiority feelings, Personality and Individual Differences, 111, 19, 10.1016/j.paid.2017.01.048 · DOI
  3. Bangee, 2014, Loneliness and attention to social threat in young adults: Findings from an eye tracker study, Personality and Individual Differences, 63, 16, 10.1016/j.paid.2014.01.039 · DOI
  4. Bernardon, 2011, Loneliness, attachment, and the perception and use of social support in university students, Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 43, 40
  5. Besevegis, 2010, Coping with loneliness in childhood, The European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 7, 653, 10.1080/17405620903113306 · DOI
  6. Betts, 2015, Adolescents' experiences of victimization: The role of attribution style and generalized trust, Journal of School Violence, 1
  7. Burke, 2012, Social skills, family conflict, and loneliness in families, Communication Reports, 25, 75, 10.1080/08934215.2012.719461 · DOI
  8. Cacioppo, 2015, Implicit attention to negative social, in contrast to nonsocial, words in the Stroop task differs between individuals high and low in loneliness: Evidence from event-related brain microstates, Cortex, 70, 213, 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.05.032 · DOI
  9. Cacioppo, 2016, Loneliness and implicit attention to social threat: A high-performance electrical neuroimaging study, Cognitive Neuroscience, 7, 138, 10.1080/17588928.2015.1070136 · DOI
  10. Cacioppo, 2015, Loneliness: Clinical import and interventions, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10, 238, 10.1177/1745691615570616 · DOI · Paper page
  11. Castle, 2012, Neural and behavioral bases of age differences in perceptions of trust, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109, 20848, 10.1073/pnas.1218518109 · DOI
  12. Catterson, 2010, Cognitive mediators of the effect of peer victimization on loneliness, British Journal of Educational Psychology, 80, 403, 10.1348/000709909X481274 · DOI
  13. Chen, 2012, Close relationships and attributions for peer victimization among late adolescents, Journal of Adolescence, 35, 1547, 10.1016/j.adolescence.2012.06.003 · DOI
  14. Coplan, 2013, Alone is a crowd: Social motivations, social withdrawal, and socioemotional functioning in later childhood, Developmental Psychology, 49, 861, 10.1037/a0028861 · DOI
  15. DiTommaso, 2004, Measurement and validity characteristics of the short version of the social and emotional loneliness scale for adults, Educational and Psychological Measurement, 64, 99, 10.1177/0013164403258450 · DOI · Paper page
  16. Eisenberg, 2006, Prosocial development, Vol. 2, 300
  17. Elliot, 2006, Approach and avoidance motivation in the social domain, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 378, 10.1177/0146167205282153 · DOI
  18. Ferguson, 2014, Associations of parental and peer rejection with preadolescents' loneliness: Emotional sensitivities as mediators, Journal of Relationships Research, 5, e9, 10.1017/jrr.2014.9 · DOI
  19. Gable, 2006, Approach and avoidance social motives and goals, Journal of Personality, 74, 175, 10.1111/j.1467-6494.2005.00373.x · DOI
  20. Gere, 2010, An update of the empirical case for the need to belong, Journal of Individual Psychology, 66, 93
  21. Givertz, 2013, Direct and indirect effects of attachment orientation on relationship quality and loneliness in married couples, Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 30, 1096, 10.1177/0265407513482445 · DOI
  22. Griese, 2014, Prosocial behavior as a protective factor for children's peer victimization, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 43, 1052, 10.1007/s10964-013-0046-y · DOI
  23. Harper, 2012, Parents' and children's beliefs about peer victimization: Attributions, coping responses, and child adjustment, Journal of Early Adolescence, 32, 387, 10.1177/0272431610396089 · DOI
  24. Hawkins-Elder, 2017, Who are the lonely? A typology of loneliness in New Zealand, The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry
  25. Hirsch, 2012, Social problem solving and suicidal behavior: Ethnic differences in the moderating effects of loneliness and life stress, Archives of Suicide Research, 16, 303, 10.1080/13811118.2013.722054 · DOI
  26. Huang, 2016, Does loneliness necessarily lead to a decrease in prosocial behavior? The roles of gender and situation, Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1, 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01388 · DOI
  27. Lavigne, 2011, The fundamental need to belong: On the distinction between growth and deficit-reduction orientations, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37, 1185, 10.1177/0146167211405995 · DOI
  28. Lodder, 2016, Adolescent loneliness and social skills: Agreement and discrepancies between self-, meta-, and peer-evaluations, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 44, 1441
  29. Lodder, 2015, Loneliness and hypervigilance to social cues in females: An eye-tracking study, PLoS One, 10, e0125141, 10.1371/journal.pone.0125141 · DOI
  30. Lodder, 2016, Loneliness and the social monitoring system: Emotion recognition and eye gaze in a real-life conversation, British Journal of Psychology, 107, 135, 10.1111/bjop.12131 · DOI
  31. London, 2007, Social causes and consequences of rejection sensitivity, Journal of Research on Adolescence, 17, 481, 10.1111/j.1532-7795.2007.00531.x · DOI · Paper page
  32. Mahon, 2006, A meta-analytic study of predictors for loneliness during adolescence, Nursing Research, 55, 446, 10.1097/00006199-200611000-00009 · DOI
  33. Mearns, 2009, Multitrait–multimethod matrix validation of the negative mood regulation scale, Journal of Research in Personality, 43, 910, 10.1016/j.jrp.2009.05.003 · DOI
  34. Miers, 2008, Interpretation bias and social anxiety in adolescents, Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 22, 1462, 10.1016/j.janxdis.2008.02.010 · DOI
  35. Moroń, 2014, Emotion understanding, interpersonal competencies and loneliness among students, Polish Psychological Bulletin, 45, 223, 10.2478/ppb-2014-0028 · DOI
  36. Mouratidis, 2009, On social achievement goals: Their relations with peer acceptance, classroom belongingness, and perceptions of loneliness, Journal of Experimental Education, 77, 285, 10.3200/JEXE.77.3.285-308 · DOI
  37. Muris, 2008, Distorted cognition and pathological anxiety in children and adolescents, Cognition and Emotion, 22, 395, 10.1080/02699930701843450 · DOI · Paper page
  38. Nakagawa, 2015, White matter structures associated with loneliness in young adults, Scientific Reports, 5, 17001, 10.1038/srep17001 · DOI
  39. Newall, 2009, Causal beliefs, social participation, and loneliness among older adults: A longitudinal study, Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 26, 273, 10.1177/0265407509106718 · DOI · Paper page
  40. Nikitin, 2012, The role of age and social motivation in developmental transitions in young and old adulthood, Frontiers in Psychology, 3, 366, 10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00366 · DOI
  41. Park, 2015, Social exclusion causes a shift toward prevention motivation, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 56, 153, 10.1016/j.jesp.2014.09.011 · DOI
  42. Parker, 2006, Peer relationships, child development, and adjustment: A developmental psychopathology perspective, Vol. 1, 419
  43. Perlman, 1981, Toward a social psychology of loneliness, Vol. 3, 31
  44. Prinstein, 2005, Peer victimization, cue interpretation, and internalizing symptoms: Preliminary concurrent and longitudinal findings for children and adolescents, Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 34, 11, 10.1207/s15374424jccp3401_2 · DOI
  45. Qualter, 2002, The separateness of social and emotional loneliness in childhood, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 43, 233, 10.1111/1469-7610.00016 · DOI
  46. Qualter, 2009, Loneliness, interpersonal distrust, and alexithymia in university students, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 39, 1461, 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2009.00491.x · DOI
  47. Qualter, 2013, Investigating hypervigilance for social threat of lonely children, Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 41, 325, 10.1007/s10802-012-9676-x · DOI · Paper page
  48. Qualter, 2015, Loneliness across the life span, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10, 250, 10.1177/1745691615568999 · DOI · Paper page
  49. Raikes, 2008, Attachment security and parenting quality predict children's problem-solving, attributions, and loneliness with peers, Attachment & Human Development, 10, 319, 10.1080/14616730802113620 · DOI
  50. Renshaw, 1993, Loneliness in middle childhood: Concurrent and longitudinal predictors, Child Development, 64, 1271, 10.2307/1131339 · DOI
  51. Rosenstreich, 2015, Loneliness, mindfulness, and academic achievements: A moderation effect among first-year college students, Open Psychology Journal, 8, 138, 10.2174/1874350101508010138 · DOI
  52. Rotenberg, 2010, The relation between trust beliefs and loneliness during early childhood, middle childhood, and adulthood, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36, 1086, 10.1177/0146167210374957 · DOI
  53. Rotenberg, 2004, The relationship between loneliness and interpersonal trust during middle childhood, Journal of Genetic Psychology, 165, 233, 10.3200/GNTP.165.3.233-249 · DOI
  54. Rubin, 1989, The many faces of social isolation in childhood, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 56, 916, 10.1037/0022-006X.56.6.916 · DOI
  55. Schinka, 2013, Psychosocial predictors and outcomes of loneliness trajectories from childhood to early adolescence, Journal of Adolescence, 36, 1251, 10.1016/j.adolescence.2013.08.002 · DOI · Paper page
  56. Segrin, 2000, Poor social skills are a vulnerability factor in the development of psychosocial problems, Human Communication Research, 26, 489, 10.1111/j.1468-2958.2000.tb00766.x · DOI
  57. Sharp, 2015, Mechanisms mediating children's perceived maternal nonsupportive reactions to sadness and children's social and emotional functioning, Journal of Child and Family Studies, 25, 367, 10.1007/s10826-015-0240-5 · DOI
  58. Stillman, 2009, Alone and without purpose: Life loses meaning following social exclusion, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 686, 10.1016/j.jesp.2009.03.007 · DOI
  59. Thomas, 2015, Rejection sensitivity and adjustment during adolescence: Do friendship self-silencing and parent support matter?, Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24, 608, 10.1007/s10826-013-9871-6 · DOI
  60. Troop-Gordon, 2005, Trajectories of peer victimization and perceptions of the self and schoolmates: Precursors to internalizing and externalizing problems, Child Development, 76, 1072, 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2005.00898.x · DOI · Paper page
  61. Tsai, 2009, Perceptions by and of lonely people in social networks, Personal Relationships, 16, 221, 10.1111/j.1475-6811.2009.01220.x · DOI
  62. van Dulmen, 2013, Loneliness trajectories, Journal of Adolescence, 36, 1247, 10.1016/j.adolescence.2013.08.001 · DOI
  63. van Roekel, 2014, Loneliness, affect, and adolescents' appraisals of company: An experience sampling method study, Journal of Research on Adolescence, 24, 350, 10.1111/jora.12061 · DOI
  64. van Roekel, 2016, Loneliness in the daily lives of young adults: Testing a socio-cognitive model, European Journal of Personality, 30, 19, 10.1002/per.2028 · DOI
  65. Vanhalst, 2015, Lonely adolescents exhibit heightened sensitivity for facial cues of emotion, Cognition and Emotion, 1
  66. Vanhalst, 2015, Why do the lonely stay lonely? Chronically lonely adolescents' attributions and emotions in situations of social inclusion and exclusion, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 109, 932, 10.1037/pspp0000051 · DOI · Paper page
  67. Vitkus, 1987, Poor social performance of lonely people: Lacking a skill or adopting a role?, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 1266, 10.1037/0022-3514.52.6.1266 · DOI
  68. Wei, 2005, Adult attachment, social self-efficacy, self-disclosure, loneliness, and subsequent depression for freshman college students: A longitudinal study, Journal of Counseling Psychology, 52, 602, 10.1037/0022-0167.52.4.602 · DOI · Paper page
  69. Wols, 2015, Prospective associations between loneliness and emotional intelligence, Journal of Adolescence, 39, 38, 10.1016/j.adolescence.2014.12.007 · DOI
  70. Woodhouse, 2012, Loneliness and peer relations in adolescence, Social Development, 21, 273, 10.1111/j.1467-9507.2011.00611.x · DOI
  71. Zimmer-Gembeck, 2014, Relational victimization, loneliness and depressive symptoms: Indirect associations via self and peer reports of rejection sensitivity, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 43, 568, 10.1007/s10964-013-9993-6 · DOI · Paper page
  72. Zysberg, 2012, Loneliness and emotional intelligence, Journal of Psychology, 146, 37, 10.1080/00223980.2011.574746 · DOI

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Metadata

Authors
Spithoven, A. W. M., Bijttebier, P., & Goossens, L.
Affiliations
KU Leuven (BE)
Corresponding author
Spithoven, Annette W.M.
ORCID
Venue
Clinical Psychology Review
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2017-12
Volume
58
Pages
97-114
ISSN
0272-7358 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.cpr.2017.10.003
OpenAlex
W2766846363
Cited by
339
References
19
Citations by year
2026: 63 · 2025: 66 · 2024: 52 · 2023: 46 · 2022: 39 · 2021: 29 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 8
FWCI
1.51
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
Locations
  • Clinical Psychology Review (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds, KU Leuven (GOA/12/009)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
  • Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
Keywords
loneliness, cognitive biases, social information processing model, attention, self-assessment, self-efficacy, social cognition
MeSH terms
Attentional Bias, Humans, Loneliness, Self Concept, Social Perception, Thinking

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review