Does social exclusion motivate interpersonal reconnection? Resolving the "porcupine problem."

Abstract

Evidence from 6 experiments supports the social reconnection hypothesis, which posits that the experience of social exclusion increases the motivation to forge social bonds with new sources of potential affiliation. Threat of social exclusion led participants to express greater interest in making new friends, to increase their desire to work with others, to form more positive impressions of novel social targets, and to assign greater rewards to new interaction partners. Findings also suggest potential boundary conditions to the social reconnection hypothesis. Excluded individuals did not seem to seek reconnection with the specific perpetrators of exclusion or with novel partners with whom no face-to-face interaction was anticipated. Furthermore, fear of negative evaluation moderated responses to exclusion such that participants low in fear of negative evaluation responded to new interaction partners in an affiliative fashion, whereas participants high in fear of negative evaluation did not.

Differential Responses of Independent and Interdependent People to Social Exclusion

“…Indeed, independents provided slightly lower indicators of network-harmony contingency under these conditions. These results support prediction 2 and correspond with the finding that some people are reluctant to strengthened relationships with others for the purpose of restoring a sense of belonging in exclusion situations (e.g., those who mind negative appraisals of others; Maner, DeWall, Baumeister, & Schaller, 2007). It is possible that independents show more immediate or effective responses to exclusion than just holding on to a broad network of other individuals in increased regard.…”

Social exclusion decreases prosocial behavior.

“…Other work has confirmed that excluded people do want new friends (Maner et al, 2007). The present work shows, however, that prosocial behavior is not a strategy that rejected people use to find friends.…”

Self-esteem reactions to social interactions: Evidence for sociometer mechanisms across days, people, and nations.

“…From an evolutionary functional perspective, this extinction of previous responses should facilitate a re-evaluation of one's actions and whole social situation, which (if successful) should eventually lead to actions that restore social inclusion. However, these efforts do not necessarily have to be directed toward the same individuals (Maner et al 2007) and may only exert an effect after an extensive period of time. For these reasons, it is possible that low SE on 1 day will not have a facilitating effect on social interaction quality or quality with the same interaction partner on the next day.…”