Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Personality and Individual Differences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid Dispositional self-compassion impacts immediate and delayed reactions to social evaluation Christina Ewert a, ⁎ , Benjamin Gaube b , Fay Caroline Mary Geisler a a University of Greifswald, Institute of Psychology, Greifswald, Germany b Johanna-Odebrecht-Stiftung, Psychiatric Clinic, Greifswald, Germany ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Self-compassion Stress Coping Shame Social evaluation Denial Acceptance Positive reframing ABSTRACT In the present study, we investigated the beneficial effects of trait self-compassion (SC) on perceived stress, shame, and the use of coping strategies in reaction to a socio-evaluative stressor while controlling for the effects of neuroticism (N) and conscientiousness (C). Participants (N = 105) performed a mental-arithmetic task with immediate in-person feedback. SC predicted less perceived stress and shame immediately after the stressor. Additionally, SC predicted less shame after a short recovery phase. This effect was fully mediated by less use of denial. Furthermore, SC buffered the effect of N on the use of denial, and C on shame after recovery. SC also predicted more use of positive reframing. Thus, SC may make a socio-evaluative stressor less threatening and may thwart a shame-inducing conception of the stressor by promoting clearer processing. Furthermore, SC may be especially beneficial for those vulnerable to dysfunctional coping and negative self-conscious emotions. This study contributes to the understanding of how trait self-compassion beneficially influences the processing of stressful situations. 1. Introduction Those who are self-compassionate have an accepting and caring attitude toward themselves. More precisely, self-compassion (SC) in- volves “being open to and moved by one's own suffering, experiencing feelings of caring and kindness toward oneself, taking an under- standing, nonjudgmental attitude toward one's inadequacies and fail- ures, and recognizing that one's experience is part of the common human experience” (Neff, 2003a; p.224). This kind attitude toward oneself should be especially beneficial when one is being evaluated by someone else. Evaluations, even from strangers, can evoke strong dis- tress and feelings of shame (Dickerson, Gruenwald, & Kemeny, 2004; Leary & Guadagno, 2004). The aim of the present study is to examine the impact of trait SC on a person's immediate subjective reaction, use of coping strategies, and delayed subjective reaction to a socio-evaluative stressor. The im- mediate reaction can be understood as reflecting the perception of the significance of the event (i.e. how threatening the event is), and the delayed reaction can be understood as reflecting the estimated ability to cope with the event (Lazarus, 1991). In the present study, we focus on the self-conscious emotion shame (rather than anxiety as in previous research; e.g. Arch et al., 2014) and on the role of coping in mediating the impact of trait SC on shame. Knowing when and what aspect of the unfolding reaction to a socio-evaluative stressor SC impacts will con- tribute to the understanding of how SC can foster psychological func- tioning (Neff, Kirkpatrick, & Rude, 2007). In line with this idea, a recent meta-analysis by Zessin, Dickhäuser, and Garbade (2015) showed the positive impact of SC on numerous well-being components, but also pointed out that very few studies have explored the processes behind this relationship. 1.1. Trait SC and reacting to and coping with stress Research has shown that trait SC attenuates the reaction to negative events (e.g. Leary, Tate, Adams, Allen, & Hancock, 2007). For example, trait SC was negatively associated with anxiety assessed directly after answering typical job interview questions in a group experiment (Neff et al., 2007). In addition, self-compassionate people may make more use of effective coping strategies (Allen & Leary, 2010). More specifi- cally, in students coping with an unsatisfactory grade, trait SC was positively associated with acceptance and positive reinterpretation and negatively associated with denial (Neff, Hsieh, & Dejitterat, 2005). The same pattern was found for coping with chronic illness (Sirois, Molnar, & Hirsch, 2014). Furthermore, numerous studies have already revealed the buffering effect of SC on perceived stress (e.g. Arch et al., 2014; Sirois et al., 2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.12.037 Received 19 July 2017; Received in revised form 8 November 2017; Accepted 27 December 2017 ⁎ Corresponding author at: University of Potsdam, Institute of Psychology, Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 24-25, OT Golm, 14476 Potsdam, Germany. E-mail addresses: cewert@uni-potsdam.de (C. Ewert), fay.geisler@uni-greifswald.de (F.C.M. Geisler).