It also describes those who suppress anger, restrict social behavior, withdraw in the face of novelty, and have a long latency to interact with strangers.
[4] In infants and children, social inhibition is characterized by a temperamental style that results in negative responses and the withdrawal from unfamiliar people, situations and objects.
[4] In addition to cessation of play, inhibited infants and children may display long latencies to approaching unfamiliar individuals, signs of fear, negative affect, and security seeking.
In one study, Fox and colleagues found that even at four months of age, some infants had negative responses to unfamiliar visual and audio stimuli.
The study was longitudinal; therefore, follow ups revealed that half of the infants who had seen to have high negative responses continued to show behavioral inhibition through the age of two.
Park and Critic claim that a sensitive, accepting, and overprotective parenting is best to reduce negative behaviors because it will allow the child to practice self expression without judgment.
Researchers found younger individuals to be more likely to differentiate between public and private settings when inquiring about potentially embarrassing issues.
Guest states that adults do not have as many casual peer interactions and friendship opportunities that guide and support relationships unless they facilitate them on their own.
[21] Adolescent research has also shown that social inhibition is associated with a more negative emotional state in young men than women.
[21] A similar study found that some shy men had a low occupational status at age forty because they entered their career later in life.
[23] However, another researcher has commented on this giving this example, speculating that remaining at home longer allows young adults to accumulate educational and financial resources before moving out and becoming more independent.
Results indicated that children whose birth mothers met criteria for the diagnosis of social phobia showed elevated levels of observed behavioral inhibition.
In Geng's study, gender came in to play with highly socially inhibited girls being extremely aware of their surroundings and possibly paying too much attention to potentially anxious situations.
Researchers from the United Kingdom conducted a study in an attempt to explain possible links between social inhibition in infancy and later signs of depression.
[37] Significantly, this study was conducted with young, healthy adults, as opposed to working with those in self-help groups, or with individuals who have a preexisting medical or psychological condition.
[38] In 2011, researchers Elizabeth J. Kiel and Kristin A. Buss examined "how attention toward an angry-looking gorilla mask in a room with alternative opportunities for play in 24-month-old toddlers predicted social inhibition when children entered kindergarten".
[38][39] Previously, it has been found in earlier research conducted by Buss and colleagues that no matter the differences, individual responses to novelty during early childhood can be related to later social inhibition.
[38] Another important factor that the researchers found when looking at the prediction of social inhibition is the child paying a significant amount of attention to a feared or threatening stimuli in the presence of other, more enjoyable activities.
[47] The researchers cite an experiment conducted by Majdandzic and Van den Boom, in which a laboratory setting was used to attempt to elicit fear in children.
[47][48] What Majdandizic and Van der Boom found was a variability in the way that fear was elicited in the children when using either the social or non-social stimuli.
[57] However, the researchers found that an intoxicated individual did not have these same inhibitions and, as a result, exhibited more extreme behaviors of retaliated aggression to the provocation without processing information they would normally consider about the situation.
[57] Researchers were of the same opinion that alcohol lowers inhibitions and allows for more extreme behaviors, however, they tested to see if this would be true for more socially acceptable situations, such as helping another person.
"[58] Conceivably, the bachelorette parties show tendencies of "wild" behavior after excessive alcohol consumption, which consequently lowers the inhibitions of the consumers.
[59] Similarly, in a laboratory study it was found that when one person in a group feels powerful their reduced social inhibition can result in decreased manners.
[59] Power, in this instance, can be defined as a fundamental factor in social relationships that is central to interactions,[60] influencing behavior and emotional display.
These can include inhibiting themselves from providing input on ideas, hesitating in normal speech, and even increasing their facial muscle actions in order to keep themselves from displaying emotions.
[65] The researchers did this by examining the brain activity of individuals who rate high in social inhibition as they respond to video clips of facial and bodily expressions that were potentially threatening.
[65] What the researchers found was that those who rate high in social inhibition show an overactive orbitofrontal cortex, left temporo-parietal junction, and right extrastriate body area.
With this system researchers will observe cessation of play and vocalization, long latencies to approaching the unfamiliar person, signs of fear and negative affect, and security seeking in environments such as classrooms, playgrounds, and in home settings.
[73] In one study discussing assertive training Ludwig and Lazarus found irrational cognitive patterns that inhibited individuals have to deal with and how to overcome them.