Social anxiety and dynamic social reinforcement learning in a volatile environment
Open accessAbstract
Adaptive social behavior requires learning probabilities of social reward and punishment, and updating these probabilities when they change. Given prior research on aberrant reinforcement learning in affective disorders, this study examines how social anxiety affects probabilistic social reinforcement learning and dynamic updating of learned probabilities in a volatile environment. N=222 online participants completed questionnaires and a computerized ball-catching game with changing probabilities of reward and punishment. Dynamic learning rates were estimated to assess the relative importance ascribed to new information in response to volatility. Mixed-effects regression was used to analyze throw patterns as a function of social anxiety symptoms. Higher social anxiety predicted fewer throws to the previously punishing avatar and different learning rates after certain role changes, suggesting that social anxiety may be characterized by difficulty updating learned social probabilities. Socially anxious individuals may miss the chance to learn that a once-punishing situation no longer poses a threat.
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Due to greater hypersensitivity to social punishment, people with social anxiety may have greater difficulty adapting to increased social reinforcement after being rejected by someone even when that person later becomes more rewarding.
“An experimental study showed that due to greater hypersensitivity to social punishment, people with social anxiety may have greater difficulty adapting to increased social reinforcement after being rejected by someone (or perceiving they were) even when that person later becomes more rewarding (36).”
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Luoma, J., & Lear, M. K. (2021) · Frontiers in Psychiatry · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2021.733893 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
“An experimental study showed that due to greater hypersensitivity to social punishment, people with social anxiety may have greater difficulty adapting to increased social reinforcement after being rejected by someone (or perceiving they were) even when that person later becomes more rewarding (36).”
Background
- Authors
- Beltzer, M. L., Adams, S., Beling, P. A., & Teachman, B. A.
- Affiliations
- Department of Psychology
- University of Virginia (US)
- Corresponding author
- Beltzer, Miranda L.
- Venue
- Clinical Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2019-09-20
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1372-1388
- ISSN
- 2167-7026 (ISSN-L)
- 2167-7034
- PMC
- PMC7451209
- OpenAlex
- W2974175497
- Cited by
- 32
- References
- 66
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 4
- FWCI
- 2.06
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Clinical Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH113752, R34MH106770)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Keywords
- social anxiety, dynamic learning rate, probabilistic learning, volatility, mood disorders
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