WP3: Social Exclusion

How does social exclusion affect people’s physical and emotional state?

Bernstein, M. J., & Claypool, H. M. (2012a). Social exclusion and pain sensitivity: Why exclusion sometimes hurts and sometimes numbs. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38, 185-196.

In this article, Bernstein and Claypool conclude that physical and emotional pain are intertwined with one another. They state, “An experience that triggers physical pain should be accompanied by an emotionally painful reaction, whereas physically numbing experiences should co-occur with emotional numbness.” On the flip side, people who naturally have a low pain tolerance will also feel an equally emotionally painful reaction. In most cases, they find that following social exclusion not only do individuals have higher pain insensitivity, they also become emotionless and lethargic.

Narayanan et al., 2013 J. Narayanan, K. Tai, Z. Kinias

Power motivates interpersonal connection following social exclusion

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 2013, ISSN: 2, Vol: 122, Issue 2, Pages: 257-265

Narayanan, Tai, and Kinias research social exclusion and its connection to power. The researchers conduct four studies, each of which consisted of high power, low power, and a control group of participants. Some research suggests that after exclusion people are less likely to try and react with other people; however, there is other research that shows that following exclusion people put more effort into social interactions. They state, “For high power individuals, the intention to connect is more dominant than the fear of further exclusion. This leads to a greater intention to connect with others following exclusion.” An interesting fact about seeking power is that individuals only seek connections after social exclusion and not inclusion. Although high power people are more likely to pursue social connections after exclusion than socially with-drawing themselves, low power people are more likely to remain excluded.

Bungert et al., 2015 M. Bungert, G. Koppe, I. Niedtfeld, S. Vollstädt-Klein, C. Schmahl

Pain Processing after Social Exclusion and Its Relation to Rejection Sensitivity in Borderline Personality Disorder 2015, ISSN: 8, Vol: 10

Bungert, Koppe, Niedtfeld, Vollstädt-Klein, and Schmahl conduct many experiments on subjects that include people with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and a control group of healthy people. Some research has found that pain increases after exclusion, whereas others find that pain decreases. However, there seems to be a link between the severity of social exclusion to the amount of sensitivity one has to pain. For example, if a person experiences severe forms of social exclusion, they are more likely to feel physical pain less. Similarly, in regards to rejection sensitivity, people that have higher levels of rejection sensitivity tend to show reduced sensitivity to physical pain. They exclaim, “mild forms of social exclusion enhance sensitivity to physical pain, whereas more severe forms reduce sensitivity to physical pain.” However, people with BPD expect rejection even more than people with anxiety disorders so it is no surprise that they have the least pain sensitivity.

Seidel, E. M., Silani, G., Metzler, H., Thaler, H., Lamm, C., Gur, R. C., . . . Derntl, B. (2013). The impact of social exclusion vs. inclusion on subjective and hormonal reactions in females and males. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 38(12), 2925-2932. doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2013.07.021

In this article, research suggests that following social exclusion people are less likely to react positively and are more likely to be angry. They also link social exclusion to testosterone and progesterone levels of men and women after social exclusion. They find that, “testosterone significantly decreased after being excluded in both genders, and increased after inclusion, but only in males. Interestingly, progesterone showed an increase after both conditions only in females.” Low testosterone levels can be linked to depression, moodiness, and low self-esteem. Similarly high levels of progesterone can be linked to anxiety and depression. Research also suggests that following social exclusion women’s cortisol levels, which controls mood and fear, increase.

Durlik et al., 2015 C. Durlik, M. Tsakiris Decreased interoceptive accuracy following social exclusion, 1, 57-63

Durlik and Tsakiris observe that social exclusion, “lower one's sense of belonging, control, meaningful existence and self-esteem.”  They also find that social exclusion is linked with a decrease in temperature of the skin. Their research also suggests that following social exclusion, “interoceptive accuracy – the accuracy with which an individual perceives own internal signals...might be affected by this socially distressing experience.” After conducting the cyberball experiment, they also observe that individuals mimic strangers more following social exclusion.