Abstract
Two studies examined the effect of loneliness on initial social interactions. The first study asked participants to picture themselves in eight social scenarios and predict how they would act in each situation. Lonely people thought their behavior would be especially anxious and unlikely to initiate conversation in situations where they did not know other people. In the second study, students interacted in groups of four same-sex members for 30 minutes. Following the interaction, each group member rated themselves and others on eleven personal characteristics, such as physical attractiveness, social skills, and anxiety. Each member also judged how he or she thought each other group member saw him or her on the eleven variables (meta-perceptions). The Social Relations Model was used to analyze the data. Results indicated that lonely people viewed others more negatively, themselves more negatively and thought others viewed them more negatively. Lonely people were not, however, rated differentially by others. These results support the hypothesis that difficulties in initial social interactions are partly in the mind of the lonely person. Finally, evidence also suggested that high loneliness people and low loneliness people are more accurate than moderately lonely people in judging how they are seen by others.
Christensen, Peter Niels (1996). Perceptions of and by lonely people in initial social interaction. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /ETD -TAMU -1996 -THESIS -C48.