Abstract
Objective: The human brain adjusts its level of effort in coping with various life stressors as a partial function of perceived access to social resources. We examined whether people who avoid social ties maintain a higher fasting basal level of glucose in their bloodstream and consume more sugar-rich food, reflecting strategies to draw more on personal resources when threatened. Methods: In Study 1 (N = 60), we obtained fasting blood glucose and adult attachment orientations data. In Study 2 (N = 285), we collected measures of fasting blood glucose and adult attachment orientations from older adults of mixed gender, using a measure of attachment style different from Study 1. In Study 3 (N = 108), we examined the link between trait-like attachment avoidance, manipulation of an asocial state, and consumption of sugar-rich food. In Study 4 (N = 115), we examined whether manipulating the social network will moderate the effect of attachment avoidance on consumption of sugar-rich food. Results: In Study 1, fasting blood glucose levels corresponded with higher attachment avoidance scores after statistically adjusting for time of assessment and interpersonal anxiety. For Study 2, fasting blood glucose continued to correspond with higher adult attachment avoidance even after statistically adjusting for interpersonal anxiety, stress indices, age, gender, social support and body mass. In Study 3, people high in attachment avoidance consume more sugar-rich food, especially when reminded of asocial tendencies. Study 4 indicated that after facing a stressful task in the presence of others, avoidant people gather more sugar-rich food than more socially oriented people. Conclusion: Results are consistent with the suggestion that socially avoidant individuals upwardly adjust their basal glucose levels and consume more glucose-rich food with the expectation of increased personal effort because of limited access to social resources. Further investigation of this link is warranted.
Highlights
When God looked upon man, he or she contended that, “It is not good for the man to be alone.” (Genesis, 2:18)
Consistent with our hypothesis, the analysis revealed that the higher the participants’ attachment avoidance score, the greater their fasting basal glucose level, b = 2.18, 95% CI for b (0.74, 3.62), β = 0.22, p = 0.003, replicating the results of Study 1
In the studies reported here, we have examined the possibility that people who tend to avoid social resources would devote higher levels of a rapidly deployable metabolic resource—glucose—to their bloodstream and to consume more sugar-rich food, in order to increase their all-purpose access to that resource
Summary
When God looked upon man, he or she contended that, “It is not good for the man to be alone.” (Genesis, 2:18). These people, often called “avoidantly attached” (Mikulincer and Shaver, 2007), tend to cope with threats by deemphasizing distress and vulnerability and by attempting to cope independently, without seeking others’ help (Fraley and Shaver, 1997) Because they do not share the cost of many of life’s metabolically expensive activities, they are likely to employ a traitlike strategy of increased preparedness for individual decision making, problem solving, threat vigilance, and even the regulation threat vigilance—a strategy that increases their personal “budget” for rapidly accessible metabolic resources (Beckes and Coan, 2011; Gross and Proffitt, 2013). We examined this premise by testing (1) whether people who tend to avoid social ties—high scorers on attachment avoidance—maintain in their blood a higher basal concentration of circulating glucose, the most accessible metabolic fuel of the human body and brain (Vannucci and Vannucci, 2000); and (2) whether attachment avoidance corresponds with greater consumption of sugar-containing food such as carbohydrates
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