Fig. 2: Average skin conductance responses (SCRs) and effect of social concern in female and male participants.

A Gender effect on average SCRs to aversive and neutral sounds in the alone and the social treatment groups, showing a significant social buffering effect in females, but not in males. B Interaction between treatment (alone/social), gender (female/male) and individual social concern scores, reflecting a stronger effect of social concern on SCRs to aversive sounds in females compared to males. The values of SCRs were transformed by log (x + 1) to correct the skewness. Error bars indicate standard error. The shade area in (B) indicates 95% confidence interval. **p < 0.01.