When you tell lonely people you are testing their social skills, they choke. On the other hand, when you give them the very same test for social skills, but you say that you're measuring something else - you're measuring their mental ability - the lonely volunteers now do great. They actually outperform volunteers who are not lonely.

is the same thing happening to lonely people in social interactions? They already have these skills. But instead of simply applying those skills, they over think what they know, and they end up not being able to perform what they know how to do.