Stranger, Lover, Friend

The Pain of Rejection Does Not Depend

authored by

Anne Böckler, Annika Rennert, Tim Raettig

Abstract

Social exclusion, even from minimal game-based interactions, induces negative consequences. We investigated whether the nature of the relationship with the excluder modulates the effects of ostracism. Participants played a virtual ball-tossing game with a stranger and a friend (friend condition) or a stranger and their romantic partner (partner condition) while being fully included, fully excluded, excluded only by the stranger, or excluded only by their close other. Replicating previous findings, full exclusion impaired participants' basic-need satisfaction and relationship evaluation most severely. While the degree of exclusion mattered, the relationship to the excluder did not: Classic null hypothesis testing and Bayesian statistics showed no modulation of ostracism effects depending on whether participants were excluded by a stranger, a friend, or their partner.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Psychology

External Organisation(s)

Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg

Type

Article

Journal

Social psychology

Volume

52

Pages

173-184

No. of pages

12

ISSN

1864-9335

Publication date

31.05.2021

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Social Psychology, Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous), Sociology and Political Science, General Psychology

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000446 (Access: Open)