Join us for our Social Behavioral Interest Group (SBIG) Colloquium on March 26, 2026!
Speaker: Elisa Baek (University of Southern California)
Abstract: Predictive frameworks highlight that social cognition involves internal models that are used to anticipate, interpret, and update understanding of others across social experiences. This talk examines how individual differences in perceived social connection correspond to differences in these predictive processes and in the organization of social experience. Using loneliness (i.e., a perceived gap in social connection) as one lens on these individual differences, we present findings highlighting that loneliness is associated with altered predictions of emotion transitions, internal representational structures, construal and encoding of everyday experiences, and the degree to which neural responses align during the viewing of naturalistic stimuli. Across behavioral, linguistic, and neural levels, these findings suggest that individual differences in perceived social connection are closely linked to how social experience is predicted, organized, and shared.
The Social Behavior Interest Group consists of members of the university community who are interested in social psychological research. The SBIG supports an active program of visiting speakers. The group meets weekly to hear speakers describe their recent research. Since 1990, SBIG has brought in numerous distinguished visiting speakers. Presentations have included contemporary issues in the study of attitudes, social cognition, prejudice & stereotyping, and also applied research questions in the domains of health and consumer behavior.