Processing Unexpected Social Feedback in Depression: Differences in Feedback Acceptance and Immunizing Cognition

Background: Negative social expectations are a key symptom of depression. These expectations may persist by cognitively devaluing new experiences that do not fit prior expectations. However, we still know little about the role of such “immunizing” cognition in response to unexpected social feedback and the cognitive mechanisms involved. Methods: This study investigated how depression affects the cognitive processing of unexpected positive or negative social feedback using a novel, video-based approach featuring naturalistic social stimuli in a subclinical online sample (N = 155). We also examined how feedback acceptance and immunizing cognition relate to other cognitive processes, such as attributional style and rumination, using network analyses. Results: Robust multiple linear regression analyses revealed that depression levels were associated with higher surprise (R2adj. = .27), lower feedback acceptance (R2adj. = .19), and higher levels of immunizing cognition (R2 = .09) in response to unexpected positive social feedback, but only partially to unexpected negative social feedback. The network analysis suggested that self-efficacy expectations for dealing with negative feelings and acceptance of positive social feedback had the strongest expected influence on the different cognitive processes. Discussion: Our study highlights the challenges that individuals with depression face when using positive social feedback to modify negative expectations. For clinicians, our findings suggest the importance of promoting acceptance of positive feedback, while simultaneously inhibiting immunizing cognition and avoiding the use of overly positive feedback.