The importance of high quality real-life social interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic
Abstract The coronavirus pandemic has brought about dramatic restrictions to real-life social interactions and a shift towards more online social encounters. Positive social interactions have been highlighted as an important protective factor, with previous studies suggesting an involvement of the a...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Nature Portfolio
2023-03-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-30803-9 |
| _version_ | 1797865063712817152 |
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| author | Maximilian Monninger Pascal-M. Aggensteiner Tania M. Pollok Anna Kaiser Iris Reinhard Andrea Hermann Markus Reichert Ulrich W. Ebner-Priemer Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg Daniel Brandeis Tobias Banaschewski Nathalie E. Holz |
| author_facet | Maximilian Monninger Pascal-M. Aggensteiner Tania M. Pollok Anna Kaiser Iris Reinhard Andrea Hermann Markus Reichert Ulrich W. Ebner-Priemer Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg Daniel Brandeis Tobias Banaschewski Nathalie E. Holz |
| author_sort | Maximilian Monninger |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract The coronavirus pandemic has brought about dramatic restrictions to real-life social interactions and a shift towards more online social encounters. Positive social interactions have been highlighted as an important protective factor, with previous studies suggesting an involvement of the amygdala in the relationship between social embeddedness and well-being. The present study investigated the effect of the quality of real-life and online social interactions on mood, and explored whether this association is affected by an individual’s amygdala activity. Sixty-two participants of a longitudinal study took part in a one-week ecological momentary assessment (EMA) during the first lockdown, reporting their momentary well-being and their engagement in real-life and online social interactions eight times per day (N ~ 3000 observations). Amygdala activity was assessed before the pandemic during an emotion-processing task. Mixed models were calculated to estimate the association between social interactions and well-being, including two-way interactions to test for the moderating effect of amygdala activity. We found a positive relationship between real-life interactions and momentary well-being. In contrast, online interactions had no effect on well-being. Moreover, positive real-life social interactions augmented this social affective benefit, especially in individuals with higher amygdala being more sensitive to the interaction quality. Our findings demonstrate a mood-lifting effect of positive real-life social interactions during the pandemic, which was dependent on amygdala activity before the pandemic. As no corresponding effect was found between online social interactions and well-being, it can be concluded that increased online social interactions may not compensate for the absence of real-life social interactions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T23:01:59Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9c81762fe6f543fbbd8a877edede7910 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T23:01:59Z |
| publishDate | 2023-03-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-9c81762fe6f543fbbd8a877edede79102023-03-22T10:54:48ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222023-03-0113111210.1038/s41598-023-30803-9The importance of high quality real-life social interactions during the COVID-19 pandemicMaximilian Monninger0Pascal-M. Aggensteiner1Tania M. Pollok2Anna Kaiser3Iris Reinhard4Andrea Hermann5Markus Reichert6Ulrich W. Ebner-Priemer7Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg8Daniel Brandeis9Tobias Banaschewski10Nathalie E. Holz11Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg UniversityDepartment of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg UniversityDepartment of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg UniversityDepartment of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg UniversityDepartment of Biostatistics, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg UniversityDepartment of Psychotherapy and Systems Neuroscience, Justus Liebig UniversityDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg UniversityDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg UniversityDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg UniversityDepartment of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg UniversityDepartment of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg UniversityDepartment of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg UniversityAbstract The coronavirus pandemic has brought about dramatic restrictions to real-life social interactions and a shift towards more online social encounters. Positive social interactions have been highlighted as an important protective factor, with previous studies suggesting an involvement of the amygdala in the relationship between social embeddedness and well-being. The present study investigated the effect of the quality of real-life and online social interactions on mood, and explored whether this association is affected by an individual’s amygdala activity. Sixty-two participants of a longitudinal study took part in a one-week ecological momentary assessment (EMA) during the first lockdown, reporting their momentary well-being and their engagement in real-life and online social interactions eight times per day (N ~ 3000 observations). Amygdala activity was assessed before the pandemic during an emotion-processing task. Mixed models were calculated to estimate the association between social interactions and well-being, including two-way interactions to test for the moderating effect of amygdala activity. We found a positive relationship between real-life interactions and momentary well-being. In contrast, online interactions had no effect on well-being. Moreover, positive real-life social interactions augmented this social affective benefit, especially in individuals with higher amygdala being more sensitive to the interaction quality. Our findings demonstrate a mood-lifting effect of positive real-life social interactions during the pandemic, which was dependent on amygdala activity before the pandemic. As no corresponding effect was found between online social interactions and well-being, it can be concluded that increased online social interactions may not compensate for the absence of real-life social interactions.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-30803-9 |
| spellingShingle | Maximilian Monninger Pascal-M. Aggensteiner Tania M. Pollok Anna Kaiser Iris Reinhard Andrea Hermann Markus Reichert Ulrich W. Ebner-Priemer Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg Daniel Brandeis Tobias Banaschewski Nathalie E. Holz The importance of high quality real-life social interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic Scientific Reports |
| title | The importance of high quality real-life social interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic |
| title_full | The importance of high quality real-life social interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic |
| title_fullStr | The importance of high quality real-life social interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic |
| title_full_unstemmed | The importance of high quality real-life social interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic |
| title_short | The importance of high quality real-life social interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic |
| title_sort | importance of high quality real life social interactions during the covid 19 pandemic |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-30803-9 |
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