Dampened social motivation in dysphoria: the role of negative social expectancies and internal causal attribution style

Dysphoria is associated with dampening of social interaction intention, but the cognitive mechanisms that underpin this relationship are under-investigated. This study tested the hypothesis that heightened negative social expectancies mediate the association between dysphoria and dampened social motivation. Additionally, it tested the hypothesis that the association between dysphoria and negative social expectancies is mediated by an attribution style bias that attributes negative, but not positive, outcomes to internal causes. University students (N = 271) with varied levels of dysphoria read vignettes describing situations where they initiate a social interaction that results in positive or negative outcomes. Participants rated their expectancies concerning the likelihoods of these outcomes, and their expected emotional impact. Participants also forecast the emotions they would experience and reported the degree to which they attribute each outcome to internal factors (themselves) or to external factors (the other person/circumstance). Finally, participants reported their intention to seek social interaction in similar future situations. Results showed that negative biases in outcome likelihood and emotional impact expectancies both independently mediated the association between dysphoria and deficits in social interaction intention. Furthermore, negative internal causal attribution bias mediated the association between dysphoria and each type of expectancy bias. Dysphoria’s association with negative internal causal attribution style converged with negative affective forecasts, reflecting greater self-focused negative emotions (humiliation, guilt, helplessness) and reduced self-focused positive emotions (pride). Findings indicate the utility of assessing dysphoria-linked biases in outcome and emotional impact expectancies and highlight the importance of attribution style bias in dampening social motivation in dysphoria.