Adaptive Responses to Social Exclusion

Bernstein, Michael J.; Young, Stephen G.; Brown, Christina M.; Sacco, Donald F.; Claypool, Heather M.

doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02187.x

Cited by 230 publications

(111 citation statements)

References 8 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Indeed, socially excluded people can more readily distinguish between real and fake (“Duchenne”) smiles (Bernstein et al, 2008) and display a preference for real smiles (Bernstein et al, 2010), suggesting a heightened ability to decode social information.…”

Section: Attention To Social Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterizing socially avoidant and affiliative responses to social exclusion

Powers¹,

Heatherton²

2012

Front. Integr. Neurosci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Humans have a fundamental need for social relationships. From an evolutionary standpoint, the drive to form social connections may have evolved as an adaptive mechanism to promote survival, as group membership afforded the benefits of shared resources and security. Thus, rejection from social groups is especially detrimental, rendering the ability to detect threats to social relationships and respond in adaptive ways critical. Previous research indicates that social exclusion alters cognition and behavior in specific ways that may initially appear contradictory. That is, although some studies have found that exclusionary social threats lead to withdrawal from the surrounding social world, other studies indicate that social exclusion motivates affiliative social behavior. Here, we review the existing evidence supporting accounts of avoidant and affiliative responses, and highlight the conditions under which both categories of responses may be simultaneously employed. Then, we review the neuroimaging research implicating specific brain regions underlying the ability to detect and adaptively respond to threats of social exclusion. Collectively, these findings are suggestive of neural system highly attuned to social context and capable of motivating flexible behavioral responses.

show abstract

Section: Attention To Social Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterizing socially avoidant and affiliative responses to social exclusion

Powers¹,

Heatherton²

2012

Front. Integr. Neurosci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…We adapted the facial stimuli developed by Bernstein and his colleagues [23], [24]. All stimuli were located on the BBC Science & Nature Web site [25], and had been pretested for equivalency of attractiveness, trustworthiness and positivity [23], [24].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eyes Are Windows to the Chinese Soul: Evidence from the Detection of Real and Fake Smiles

Mai

Lin

et al. 2011

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

How do people interpret the meaning of a smile? Previous studies with Westerners have found that both the eyes and the mouth are crucial in identifying and interpreting smiles, yet less is known about Easterners. Here we reported that when asking the Chinese to judge the Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles as either real or fake, their accuracy and sensitivity were negatively correlated with their individualism scores but positively correlated with their collectivism scores. However, such correlations were found only for participants who stated the eyes to be the most useful references, but not for those who favored the mouth. Moreover, participants who favored the eyes were more accurate and sensitive than those who favored the mouth. Our results thus indicate that Chinese who follow the typical Eastern decoding process of using the eyes as diagnostic cues to identify and interpret others' facial expressions and social intentions, are particularly accurate and sensitive, the more they self-report greater collectivistic and lower individualistic values.

show abstract

“…Our sample size for this study was based on previous studies using similar reliving manipulations of exclusion in the laboratory (e.g., Bernstein et al, 2008). We targeted approximately 40 dyads per cell.…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Prior research examining responses to social exclusion strongly suggests that social exclusion enhances performance on this first branch of emotional intelligence. Specifically, when people feel insufficient levels of social inclusion (e.g., after a laboratory-induced exclusion, chronicallylonely individuals, individuals with dispositionally-high belonging needs), they show heightened attention to and accuracy in understanding both facial and vocal expressions of emotion (e.g., Bernstein, Sacco, Brown, Young, & Claypool, 2010;Bernstein, Young, Brown, Sacco, & Claypool, 2008;Gardner et al, 2005;Pickett, Gardner, & Knowles, 2004;Sacco, Wirth, Hugenberg, Chen, & Williams, 2011). Accurately perceiving others' emotions may not be enough to ensure successful reconnection, however.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%