Social feedback biases emerge during recall and shift across the development of social anxiety

What is it about?

Our memories aren't always accurate, especially when it comes to how we remember social interactions. This study found that people tend to recall social feedback as more positive than it actually was, a pattern that does not extend to predictions about feedback from peers they do not remember interacting with. However, social anxiety is associated with more of a negativity bias for memories of social feedback. Interestingly, across the transition from adolescence to adulthood, these memory biases become more pronounced: those with lower levels of social anxiety increasingly recall interactions more positively, while those with higher social anxiety recall them more negatively.

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Photo by Kimson Doan on Unsplash

Photo by Kimson Doan on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Memories are not perfect recordings of past events, but are flexible and can be reshaped in line with our beliefs. This is especially important for the development of social anxiety, which tends to become more challenging to address as people enter into adulthood. We show that positivity and negativity biases for memories of social feedback strengthen across the transition to adulthood as social schemas develop and solidify. Interestingly, these biases emerge for perceived memories of social feedback, but not for perceived predictions. These findings suggest that the way we remember social interactions could play an important role in the development of social anxiety, and opens up new avenues for targeted interventions.