Loneliness Moderates Affective Responses to Uplifts in Everyday Life

Previous work suggests that loneliness leads to greater affective responsivity, which is generally related to poorer emotional well-being and health. The aim of the present research was to investigate whether individual differences in loneliness moderated affective responses to everyday uplifts. Using ecological momentary assessment (EMA), participants (N=240; aged 20-65 years) reported recent uplifting experiences, and their current positive and negative affective states 5x/day for 14 days. Trait loneliness was measured in the baseline survey prior to the beginning of the EMAs. Multilevel regression analyses revealed that those with higher loneliness experienced greater immediate decreases in negative affect (NA) and increases in positive affect (PA) on occasions when they reported a recent uplift, compared to those with lower loneliness. However, loneliness did not moderate lagged effects of uplifts on either NA or PA, indicating that the emotional benefits of uplifting events for lonelier individuals did not persist to the next assessment. These findings suggest that although uplifting events significantly boosted PA and reduced NA among lonely individuals in the short-term, these effects did not have a lasting impact. The immediate affective benefits of uplifts for lonelier individuals tend to be fleeting and may be insufficient to maintain mood stability, possibly leading to additional emotional strain.