Effects of Social Exclusion on Effortful Control and Mentalizing in relation to Borderline Personality Features

Abstract The current study investigated the effects of social interactions on effortful control (EC) and mentalizing in individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) features. 123 nonclinical participants completed the emotional Stroop task to assess EC and the modified Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) to assess mentalizing capacities before and after having social interactions. The Cyberball paradigm was used to generate socially inclusive and exclusive interactions. Results indicated the high BPD group made more errors on the Stroop task following exclusive social interactions than the low BPD group. The high BPD group, compared to the low BPD group, associated fewer emotional words with facial cues following inclusive social interactions but overanalysed facial cues (hypermentalizing) following the exclusive social interaction. Exclusive social interactions hindered the inhibitory capacities in individuals with high BPD features, but inclusive social interactions facilitated. Individuals with high BPD features responded to exclusive social interactions by hypermentalizing. Thus, it was found social rejection could activate cognitive-affective processes which led to hypermentalizing and impairments in EC which in combination could explain the disruptive effects on social interactions in people with BPD features