Loss of mnemic neglect among socially anxious individuals

Abstract

The relation between social anxiety and memory for self-threatening information was investigated in the context of the mnemic neglect paradigm (Sedikides & Green, 2000). It was hypothesized that those high in social anxiety would evince a loss of mnemic neglect: They would show a reduced likelihood of poor memory for central, negative, and self-referent behaviors (i.e., behaviors that reflected social ineptness and untrustworthiness), and would do so because these behaviors are especially threatening to socially anxious individuals and fit well with their self-views. Results from three studies were consistent with the hypothesis. The loss of mnemic neglect observed in two of the studies could not be accounted for by depression, nor was it limited to a social threat context. The results were mixed as to whether the loss of mnemic neglect in socially anxious individuals was limited to behaviors that reflected social ineptness, or whether it also emerged in memory for behaviors that reflected untrustworthiness. Implications for social anxiety, the self, and memory are discussed.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Bettina Zengel: orcid.org/0000-0002-0871-3158

ORCID for Constantine Sedikides: orcid.org/0000-0003-4036-889X

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