Interpreting ambiguous situations: The role of loneliness

Two studies were carried out to determine how loneliness is related to the way that individuals interpret ambiguous situations. Study 1 involved participants from undergraduate psychology classes and Study 2 involved participants from the general population. Participants completed measures of loneliness, anxiety, and depression, as well as a measure of their interpretation of ambiguous situations. Pearson correlations were used to assess the relationship between three types of loneliness and the perceived pleasantness of ambiguous situations. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to determine whether the same types of loneliness predicted perceived pleasantness over and above the effects of depression, anxiety, and perceived vividness of ambiguous situations. Across both studies, there was a link between social loneliness and the way individuals interpret ambiguous situations. These results have implications for the treatment of loneliness, in particular social loneliness.