Social Allergies

Mechanisms of Social Allergies

A social allergy affects an individual emotionally in a manner that resembles how physical allergies function immunologically. The first experience with poison ivy generally produces a small negative reaction. With repeated contact with poison ivy, however, sensitivity tends to increase, and the negative response becomes stronger. The same repetition-sensitization response can occur in response to a lover or coworker's unpleasant behavior. Many unpleasant behaviors that occur occasionally are gracefully tolerated and quickly forgotten. But, through periodic exposure at regular intervals or through extreme or prolonged initial exposure, a social allergen may produce escalating sensitivity. Each instance of the unpleasant actions may increase the recipients' socially allergic emotional response. Respondents recognize changes in their reaction over time by saying that they have become “tired of” or “fed up with” a social allergen.

The repetition-sensitization process may be based on the same learning dynamics that are responsible for Pavlovian conditioning and reinforcement learning, and it shares some features with post-traumatic stress disorder. Cognitive processes can accelerate the process. Negative emotions can be accelerated if the individual perceives that the perpetrator is uncivil due to indifference and does not care about causing unpleasantness or hurt feelings. Emotions can be further inflamed if the recipient has politely asked the perpetrator to curtail the unpleasant actions and they continue nonetheless. The escalating reaction may be adaptive to motivate further action to escape or suppress the allergen.

Types of Social Allergens

When university students were asked to specify people who caused social allergic reactions and drove them crazy without necessarily intending to do so, every respondent was able to name at least one person who got under his or her skin. The average was one relative and three nonrelatives. Based on studies conducted with undergraduate students in romantic relationships and a study of employees responding about work relationships, allergenic behaviors were divided into four categories. The categories differed in terms of whether the initiation of the action was intentional (even if the consequences may not have been), as opposed to being performed habitually, accidentally, or mindlessly. The factors also differed in terms of whether the behaviors were personally directed toward the individual or performed by the partner without focusing on the individual (although the partner might be offended or hurt). Examples of behaviors from love and work are offered.

Uncouth habits are behaviors that are unpleasant, but are not intentional or personally directed. A romantic partner could behave aversively through excessive informality, such as by noisily belching, showing a lack of concern for being clean, expressing a lot of profanity, or wearing old, tattered clothing. An uncouth coworker displays [Page 1512]poor grooming, frequently leaves things in others' work spaces, fails to share work information, or uses jargon that is difficult to understand.

...