Interoceptive ability moderates the effect of physiological reactivity on social judgment

Social judgments—that others are kind or cruel, well-intentioned or conniving—can ease or disrupt social interactions. And yet a person’s internal state can color these judgments—a phenomenon known as affective realism. We examined the factors that contribute to, and mitigate, affective realism during a stressful interview. We hypothesized and found that individuals’ (N=161) ability to accurately perceive their own internal sensations influenced whether they attributed their own heightened stress reactions (i.e., sympathetic nervous system reactivity) to the behavior of two impassive interviewers. Participants who were poor heartbeat detectors perceived the interviewers as less helpful, polite, or professional, and more apathetic, judgmental, and aggressive when experiencing high levels of sympathetic nervous system reactivity during their interview. Being aware of one’s internal state may be one pathway to more accurate, adaptive social interactions.