Conceptual Knowledge of Emotions is Semantically Shared and Socially Informative

Social connection is important for physical and mental health across the lifespan. Friendships are a critical source of social connection that rely on effective interpersonal support. Emotion categories (e.g., happiness, disgust) serve to efficiently communicate internal states to others, but how does individual variation in these conceptual representations impact social connectivity? In a longitudinal social network sample of first-year university students, we investigated whether representing emotions more similarly to others predicts friendship accuracy, a foundation for forging social connection and effectively recruiting social support. We also explore relationships between friendship accuracy and markers of physical and mental wellbeing. We found that emotional normativity was predictive of friendship accuracy over time, which in turn was associated with social network centrality, reduced anxiety, and higher resting heart rate variability, a marker of reduced stress. Taken together, emotional normativity may play an important role in social connection and wellbeing, particularly during early adulthood.