Exploring the Relationship between Social Surrogate Use and Depressive Symptoms

Abstract

Gabriel and her colleagues suggested that humans are flexible in fulfilling their social needs by engaging in seemingly nonsocial activities, supporting a view of humans as primarily and inextricably social beings (Gabriel et al., 2016). Although previous work has illustrated that social surrogate use is associated with some specific personality traits, little work has explored whether characteristics related to depression can promote social surrogate use. Our project collected data from 217 people from China using a comprehensive questionnaire that investigated personal health and some personality traits. Using various analytical strategies, we found that depression is positively associated with social surrogate use. Although we did not find that this association is mediated by (increased) loneliness, social isolation, rejection sensitivity, and insecure attachment, anthropomorphic tendency significantly influences the time of social surrogate use.