Individual differences in responses to anger recall: The role of social inhibition

The current study aimed to examine the role of social inhibition (SI) and its underlying facets (behavioral inhibition, interpersonal sensitivity, and social withdrawal) in explaining individual differences in anger-induced autonomic reactivity and recovery. The sample consisted of 218 undergraduate students (M_age = 20.3, SD = 2.8; 80 % women). Participants completed the 15-item Social Inhibition Questionnaire and participated in either the Anger Recall task (n = 143) or the Neutral Recall task (n = 75), while continuous blood pressure, electrodermal activity, and an electrocardiogram were recorded. Subjective anger responses were assessed before and after the tasks. Repeated-measures-ANOVAs, adjusted for the effects of sex, revealed that SI and interpersonal sensitivity were associated with increased experienced anger throughout the experiment, and that social withdrawal was associated with heightened skin sympathetic activity. In women, social inhibition was associated with stronger parasympathetic withdrawal, while in men social inhibition was associated with heightened hemodynamic reactivity, interpersonal sensitivity with overall increased blood pressure levels, and social withdrawal with better heart period recovery. These findings may imply that parasympathetic and sympathetic markers of autonomic regulation play different roles in socially inhibited men and women, and it reflects the importance of investigating the underlying facets of SI separately. Furthermore, we observed that changes in heart period and diastolic blood pressure were more likely attributable to anger induction, but other responses may be more strongly affected by vocalization or the interpersonal nature of the task. Therefore, future research is warranted to establish whether these associations are specific to anger or generalize to other stress contexts.