| Prosocial behavior is an important aspect of individual social development,plays an important role in promoting individual interpersonal communication and social harmonious development,and has been widely concerned in the field of psychology.Previous studies have found that social anxiety will have a negative impact on individual mental health,resulting in social maladjustment and difficulty in establishing meaningful interpersonal relationships.Compared with individuals with low social anxiety,individuals with high social anxiety avoid social interactions,tend to make negative comments on others’ behaviors,and find it difficult to make prosocial behaviors.However,other studies have found different results.Ecosystem theory and social cognition theory believe that prosocial behavior is the result of the combined influence of individual factors and environmental factors.Therefore,it is necessary to combine the situational factors to investigate the prosocial behavior of individuals with social anxiety.Some researchers have begun to introduce the threat situation of social exclusion to explore its influence on the relationship between social anxiety and prosocial behavior.However,there are few relevant studies and some differences,which may be due to the different paradigms of social exclusion manipulation.In addition,no studies have explored the specific influencing mechanism.The literature shows that social exclusion will make individuals experience strong negative emotions,and negative emotions will reduce the level of prosocial behavior.Cognitive reappraisal,as an emotion regulation strategy,has been proved to help individuals actively cope with stressful events such as social rejection and alleviate the related adverse reactions.Therefore,from the perspective of individual differences and situational synergies,this study systematically investigated the influence of social exclusion on prosocial behavior of individuals with social anxiety and its internal formation mechanism,and further explored its influence on prosocial behavior of individuals with social anxiety after social exclusion by activating cognitive reappraisal.To understand the prosocial behavior characteristics of individuals with social anxiety.In experiment 1,participants were screened using the interaction anxiety scale and social exclusion was manipulated using the Cyberball paradigm to investigate the effect of threat situation on prosocial behavior of individuals with social anxiety.And the mediating effect of negative emotions between social anxiety and prosocial behavior and the moderating effect of cognitive reappraisal were investigated by measuring the level of cognitive reappraisal and the negative emotions of individuals in the context of social exclusion.In experiment 2,cognitive reappraisal was initiated by asking subjects to read the guidance language,individuals with high levels of social anxiety were further taken as the main research object to investigate the effect of initiating cognitive reappraisal on the prosocial behavior of individuals with high levels of social anxiety in the context of social exclusion.The results of the two experiments showed that:(1)The prosocial behavior of the individuals in the social exclusion group was significantly lower than that in the social acceptance group,and the prosocial behavior of the individuals with high social anxiety was significantly lower than that of the individuals with low social anxiety.(2)There was no significant difference in the prosocial behavior of individuals with low social anxiety between the social acceptance group and the social exclusion group.The prosocial behavior of individuals with high social anxiety in the social exclusion group was significantly lower than that in the social acceptance group.In the social acceptance group,there was no significant difference in prosocial behavior between low and high social anxiety individuals.In the social exclusion group,prosocial behavior was significantly higher in individuals with low social anxiety than in individuals with high social anxiety.(3)In the social exclusion group,the score of negative emotion dimension of the individuals with high social anxiety was significantly higher than that of the individuals with low social anxiety.Negative emotion played an intermediary role between social anxiety and prosocial behavior.In the first half of the pathway of cognitive reappraisal regulation,social anxiety significantly positively predicted negative emotion at the low cognitive reappraisal level.The prediction effect was not significant at high cognitive reappraisal level.(4)After experiencing social exclusion,the negative emotion and prosocial behavior level of individuals with high social anxiety in the cognitive reappraisal primo group were significantly lower than those in the control group.The results of the two experiments show that social exclusion can make individuals with social anxiety produce more negative emotions and reduce their prosocial behavior,and cognitive reappraisal plays a moderating role in this process.Initiating cognitive reappraisal can buffer the negative effects of social exclusion on individuals with high social anxiety,thus showing higher prosocial behaviors.In summary,by introducing social exclusion as a situational factor,this study comprehensively discussed the relationship between social anxiety and prosocial behavior,understood the mechanism of action,enriched the empirical research of relevant theories,and further provided references for effectively reducing the negative impact of social exclusion on individuals from the perspective of emotional regulation,and expanded the application range of cognitive reappraisal strategies.In addition,to a certain extent,this study can help to better clarify the behavioral response pattern of social anxiety groups,laying a foundation for training them to regulate their emotions in clinical treatment and improve their social adaptability,which is conducive to promoting the harmonious development of society. |
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