What Is True for Others Does Not Apply to Me: Expectations About Social Causality and the Anticipation of Emotions in Borderline Personality Disorder.

Research suggests that individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) display a maladaptive explanatory style, but it remains unclear whether this bias is specific to self-referential processing or reflects a broader negative tendency. We examined whether expectations about self-esteem-damaging and self-esteem-enhancing explanations, as well as associated emotions, are specific to self-referential processing in BPD, and how they relate to self-esteem and loneliness. Sixty individuals with BPD and 60 nonclinical controls evaluated the likelihood of positive, neutral, and negative explanations in self- and other-related scenarios, rated anticipated emotional responses, and completed measures of self-esteem and loneliness. Compared to controls, individuals with BPD endorsed more negative and fewer positive explanations in self-referential scenarios, with stronger negative and weaker positive emotions. Across groups, explanatory expectations related to lower self-esteem, but in BPD, reduced anticipation of positive emotions was linked to higher loneliness. These findings highlight potential intervention targets to enhance social functioning in BPD.