Social influences on cognitive processing in enacted social support: effects on receivers’ cognitive appraisals,emotion, and affiliation

Background and objectives. Social support is linked with psychological health, but its mechanisms are unclear. We examined supporters’ influence on recipients’ cognitive processing as a mechanism of effects of support on outcomes associated with depression.

Design/methods. 2?×?2 between-subjects experiment. 147 participants (1) experienced a negative event (false feedback); (2) received social support modeling one of two contrasting cognitive processing modes (abstract/evaluative or concrete/experiential); (3) generated explanations for the event, later coded for processing mode and internal/external causal attribution; and (4) reported on emotion, perceptions of self and future, and social affiliation. To examine relational effects, half of participants were led to perceive the supporter as similar to themselves via a shared birthday manipulation.

Results. Support condition influenced participants’ processing mode and causal attributions as predicted. Abstract/evaluative support led to more positive emotion and self-perceptions, and less pessimistic expectancies for the future than concrete/experiential support. Perceived similarity moderated effects on beliefs about an upcoming social interaction, magnifying positive affiliation outcomes of abstract/evaluative versus concrete/experiential support.

Conclusions. Processing modes that are generally maladaptive at the intrapersonal level may be adaptive (and vice versa) when they are interpersonally influenced, and perceived similarity may facilitate interpersonal effects of processing mode on affiliation.