Social anxiety, cortisol, and early-stage friendship

Lindsey Beck, Emerson CollegeFollow

Affiliation of Author, Researcher, or Creator

Marlboro Institute of Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies

Department

Marlboro Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies

Author(s)

Ketay, S., Welker, K. M., Beck, L. A., Thorson, K. R., & Slatcher, R. B.

Resource Type

Article

Publication, Publisher or Distributor

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships

Publication Date

2019

Brief Description

Socially anxious people report less closeness to others, but very little research has examined how social anxiety is related to closeness in real-time social interactions. The present study investigated social anxiety, closeness, and cortisol reactivity in zero-acquaintance interactions between 84 same-sex dyads (168 participants). Dyads engaged in either a high or low self-disclosure discussion task and completed self-report measures of closeness and desired closeness post-task. Salivary cortisol was collected before, during, and after the self-disclosure task. Multilevel models indicated that in the high self-disclosure condition, individuals higher in social anxiety displayed flatter declines in cortisol than those lower in social anxiety; cortisol declines were not significantly related to social anxiety in the low self-disclosure condition. Further, across both conditions, individual’s social anxiety was associated with decreased levels of closeness and desired closeness, particularly when individuals were paired with partners higher in social anxiety. These findings are discussed in relation to previous work on hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal function, social anxiety, and interpersonal closeness.

Keywords

closeness, cortisol, friendship formation, self-disclosure, social anxiety

Recommended Citation

Ketay, S., Welker, K. M., Beck, L. A., Thorson, K. R., & Slatcher, R. B. (2019). Social anxiety, cortisol, and early-stage friendship. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 36(7), 1954-1974. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407518774915

Preferred Citation Style

APA

Peer Reviewed

1

License Agreement

1

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