Coping with Past Social Stress: Comparing Brief Self-Compassion, Cognitive Reappraisal and Control Writing Exercises

Inducing self-compassion has been shown to be helpful, particularly for individuals with high levels of social anxiety. However, few studies have compared a brief self-compassion intervention to another adaptive strategy. The primary aim of the present study was to examine the impact of a brief (5-min) self-compassion induction for social stress compared to another beneficial strategy.

Two studies were conducted to compare self-compassion and cognitive reappraisal as strategies for coping with past stressful social situations. In Study 1, participants (n = 276) were asked to recall and describe a situation during the COVID-19 pandemic where they felt judged and then were randomly assigned to either a self-compassion, cognitive reappraisal, or a control writing condition. In Study 2 (n = 277), participants were asked to recall any past stressful social situation where they felt judged by others.

For Study 1, those who completed either the self-compassion or cognitive reappraisal exercise reported significantly lower distress immediately after the induction, and higher levels of self-compassion and reappraisal compared to the control condition. For Study 2, only those who completed the self-compassion induction reported significantly higher levels of self-compassion and reappraisal and significantly lower levels of distress and state anxiety compared to those in the control condition, but the self-compassion and reappraisal conditions did not differ significantly from one another.

These studies build support for the benefits of responding to social stressors with self-compassion.

This study is not preregistered.