Key result
Reduced HRV links to higher hostility attribution bias without affecting other social cognitive measures.
Why the study?
The influence of physiological signals such as heart rate variability on social cognitive processes is preliminary and limited to laboratory studies.
Observational (n=25)
There is a long-standing debate on the influence of physiological signals on social behavior. Recent studies suggested that heart rate variability (HRV) may be a marker of social cognitive processes. However, this evidence is preliminary and limited to laboratory studies. In this study, 25 participants were assessed with a social cognition battery and asked to wear a wearable device measuring HRV for 6 consecutive days. The results showed that reduced HRV correlated with higher hostility attribution bias. However, no relationship was found between HRV and other social cognitive measures including facial emotion recognition, theory of mind or emotional intelligence. These results suggest that HRV may be linked to specific social cognitive processes requiring online emotional processing, in particular those related to social threat. These findings are discussed in the context of the neurovisceral integration model.
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Okruszek et al. (2016) reported an observational. Heart rate variability (HRV) was evaluated on Hostility attribution bias and other social cognitive measures. Reduced heart rate variability correlated with higher hostility attribution bias, but showed no relationship with facial emotion recognition, theory of mind, or emotional intelligence.
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