Real-life Affective Forecasting in Young Adults with High Social Anhedonia: An Experience Sampling Study

Background and hypothesis: Affective forecasting (AF), the ability to forecast emotional responses for future events, is critical for optimal decision-making and mental health. Most previous AF studies were conducted using laboratory-based tasks but overlooked the impacts of real-life situations and social interactions. This study used the experience sampling method to examine real-life AF in young healthy adults and individuals with high social anhedonia. Study design: In Study 1, 109 young healthy adults reported anticipated and experienced emotions of personal events for 30 days on mobile phones. In Study 2, we examined real-life AF in 28 individuals with high social anhedonia (HSA) and 32 individuals with low social anhedonia (LSA). Study results: In Study 1 (totaling 8031 real-life events), participants anticipated and experienced social events as more positive and more arousing than non-social events, but also with larger AF discrepancy. In Study 2 (totaling 2066 real-life events), compared with the LSA group, the HSA group anticipated less pleasure and displayed a larger valence discrepancy especially for social but not for non-social events. However, the HSA group reported less experienced pleasure for both social and non-social events. Conclusions: Using an ecological method for assessing real-life AF, we extended the previous laboratory-based findings to real-life situations. These findings demonstrate the effects of sociality on real-life AF and elucidate the deficit in anticipating social pleasure among HSA individuals, which reflects liability to schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. Altered AF may be a potential intervention target in people with schizophrenia spectrum disorder.