The Prosocial Cyberball Game: Compensating for social exclusion and its associations with empathic concern and bullying in adolescents

Abstract

In this study we examined prosocial compensating behavior towards socially excluded ingroup and outgroup members by using a 'Prosocial Cyberball Game' in 9-17 year old Dutch adolescents (N = 133). Results showed that adolescents compensated for the social exclusion of an unknown peer in a virtual ball tossing game, by tossing the ball more often to that player in compensation conditions compared to the fair play condition. The proportion of tosses towards the excluded player did not significantly differ as a function of the group status of that player. Although compensating behavior towards ingroup versus outgroup members did not differ, the underlying motivation for this behavior may vary. More empathic concern was associated with more prosocial tosses towards an ingroup member, while more self-reported bullying behavior was associated with less compensating behavior in the outgroup condition. These findings may have practical implications for programs intending to change bystander behavior in bullying situations.

The neural correlates of dealing with social exclusion in childhood

“…We calculated this ratio by dividing the number of tosses to Player 2 by the total number of tosses to all players (van der Meulen et al, 2016;Vrijhof et al, 2016). Paired t-tests were performed to study prosocial compensating behavior.…”

“…To measure reactions to observed social exclusion we used an experimental fMRI adapted version of the Prosocial Cyberball Game (PCG) (Riem et al, 2013;van der Meulen et al, 2016;Vrijhof et al, 2016). In this game, participants see four classical Cyberball figures on the screen (Williams et al, 2000).…”

“…In the Prosocial Cyberball Game (PCG) participants can compensate for this exclusion by tossing the ball more often to the excluded player. Studies have shown that compensating behavior followed observed social exclusion towards the excluded player across childhood, adolescence and adulthood (Riem et al, 2013;van der Meulen, van IJzendoorn, & Crone, 2016;Vrijhof et al, 2016). Yet, it remains to be determined if children are most concerned about others when observing exclusion, or about self-inclusion and exclusion.…”

“…On a behavioral level we hypothesized that observing social exclusion would lead to prosocial compensating behavior (Riem et al, 2013;van der Meulen et al, 2016;Vrijhof et al, 2016). On a neural level we expected that both experiencing self-exclusion and selfinclusion would result in activity in dACC and bilateral insula (Cacioppo et al, 2013;Dalgleish et al, 2017;Eisenberger et al, 2003;Rotge et al, 2015).…”

Children’s Social Appraisal of Exclusion in Friendship Groups

“…In other words, children take account of both social and moral concerns in their judgments of intragroup exclusion scenarios. Elsewhere it has been shown that, given the opportunity, children will compensate those who their group earlier excluded from a cyberball game (Vrijhof et al 2016;Will et al 2013). There is then good evidence of children's acute sensitivity to ingroup members' behavior that takes account of social and cognitive variables, evidence that children respond emotionally at the interpersonal and intergroup level and evidence that intergroup exclusion has deleterious outcomes.…”