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Emotion involves oneself in relation to a subject of attention; e.g., sadness is to be sad about something/someone. This study examined emotional responses to perceiving a loss of connection from oneself. Evidence suggests that Europeans tend to perceive salient objects in the foreground, while East Asians are more likely to perceive holistically, considering the interrelationships between the context and the object. We studied how this distinction affected European Americans' (EA) and Chinese Americans' (CA) sensitivity to perceiving the loss of connection. Both groups were exposed to loss by playing Cyberball, a balltossing video game, and then watched a film clip on grief. We hypothesized that EA would respond with increasing heart rate (HR) variance around the mean when perceiving loss. CA were predicted to show no difference from controls. We also hypothesized that EA would feel sadder, in terms of decreased HR and increased respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), earlier during the film clip. In total, 53 subjects were recruited, of which 40 were EA (47.5% women, age 21.08 ± 1.94 years) and 13 were CA (61.5% women, age 21.05 ± 1.74 years); 25 subjects (19 EA, 6 CA) received 2 out of 48 balls tossed in Cyberball and the controls received 10. ECG, respiration, and facial electromyography (fEMG) data were acquired. The results during Cyberball showed that EA's HR variance relative to baseline (HR SDc/b) had an upward trend on perceiving loss. Contrary to prediction, CA also showed higher levels of HR variance relative to baseline. The ANOVA of HR SDc/b revealed that the interaction effect of two factors, time and condition, was statistically significant (p = 0.009). However, as predicted, EA in the experimental condition had decreased HR and increased RSA, a sign of withdrawal in sadness, 30 to 60 s into the sad clip. fEMG data at the corrugator muscle revealed that EA activated higher peak intensity 5.5 s earlier than CA (increased 1.571 vs. 0.844). This difference, however, was not statistically significant. The evidence suggests that increased exposure to loss automatically led to increased HR variance in both groups even when subjects were informed that players were computer-generated. However, the effect was stronger on EA to increase their arousal and sensitivity to grief thereafter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The current study sought to clarify the role of emotion reactivity in non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) by examining three forms of emotion reactivity (physiological and self-reported trait and state reactivity) among a sample of young adults with or without a history of NSSI. Materials and methods: Seventy-six adults (Mage = 20.97, 73.7% female) participated in a semi-structured clinical interview to determine NSSI history and completed a measure of trait emotion reactivity. Participants then provided state emotion reactivity ratings before and after a social rejection task, recovery period, and positive mood induction while physiological data was continuously recorded. Results: Although individuals with a history of NSSI perceived themselves to be more emotionally reactive, these participants were not more physiologically reactive, nor were their state reactivity ratings significantly different from individuals without a history of NSSI. Discussion: Results suggest increased emotionality in response to a stressor is within normal bounds and not unique to individuals with a history of NSSI, and provide implications for future research on the etiology and treatment of NSSI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have shown that social exclusion can have negative effects on the well‐being of children and adolescents. However, there is inconsistent evidence regarding how the impact of social exclusion changes with age. This study used the Cyberball paradigm to investigate the effects of exclusion and subsequent inclusion on primary needs (such as belonging, self‐esteem, control and meaningful existence) and emotions (including happiness, sadness and anger) in a sample of Chinese school‐aged children (163 children aged 6–8, 8–10 and 10–11). The results revealed that children aged 6–8 showed lower susceptibility to ostracism, while threats to primary needs emerged around the ages of 8–10 and persisted until 10–12. Negative effects on moods were evident from the age of 6–8 and intensified with age. Brief inclusion following exclusion was found to effectively restore the primary needs and moods of ostracized children, serving as a reliable intervention for promoting rapid recovery. However, age‐related differences were observed in the restorative effects of re‐inclusion, with 8‐ to 10‐year‐olds benefiting more compared to 10‐ to 12‐year‐olds. These findings provide valuable insights for educational institutions seeking to create supportive environments that help children recover from the detrimental effects of ostracism. Highlights: Ostracism can be detrimental to the primary needs and moods of school‐aged children.There are developmental changes in the effects of ostracism on children's primary needs and moods, and 8–10 years old may be a critical period.Re‐inclusion can effectively restore the damaged primary needs and moods of excluded children, but its effect is also age‐dependent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The s ense of belonging is a fundamental human need and is important for establishing social relationships (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). In certain social situations, the need to belong can be threatened by others, a phenomenon known as ostracism. Individuals react differently to these threatening situations. However, not much is known about the differences between youth with and without personality pathology in emotional reactions to ostracism. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the differences in emotional reaction between these two groups. Method: Negative emotional reactions of youth (16–23 years old) diagnosed with personality pathology (n = 34) were compared with youth from a community sample (n = 44). The online game Cyberball was used as a measure for ostracism. A Repeated Measures Mixed-model ANOVA was performed to determine differences in negative affect (NA) between the groups at three measurement points. Results: Youth with personality pathology showed higher levels of NA at baseline than youth from the community sample. Although ostracism was conducted successfully, NA scores did not increase directly after playing Cyberball in both groups. Conclusions: Youth with personality pathology experience significantly more NA already at baseline, whereas they did not demonstrate stronger negative emotional reactions when confronted with ostracism than youth from a community sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between suicide ideation (SI) and distress tolerance (DT) is characterized by inconclusive results. The current study aimed to test the association between tolerance for interpersonal distress and SI in light of the Interpersonal-Psychological Theory of Suicide. 194 participants ranging in SI severity were recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk and completed a cognitive distress task (Distress Tolerance Task) and an interpersonal distress task (CyberBall) to assess (1) the association between SI severity and persistence with the tasks, and (2) self-reported psychological distress associated with the tasks. A series of multilevel model analyses showed that increased SI predicted greater persistence with the interpersonal-distress task versus the cognitive distress task. In addition, higher SI predicted more distress during the interpersonal task. Individuals with higher SI levels demonstrated a greater capability to persist with the interpersonal distress, despite feeling psychologically worse. These findings further support the central role of interpersonal needs in SI by emphasizing the importance of operationalizing DT in a manner that is relevant to suicide desire. SI is associated with persisting longer in interpersonally distressing situations. SI is also associated with higher levels of distress following social exclusion. In SI research the specific type of distress needs to be accurately operationalized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ObjectiveThe current study sought to clarify the role of emotion reactivity in non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) by examining three forms of emotion reactivity (physiological and self-reported trait and state reactivity) among a sample of young adults with or without a history of NSSI.Materials and methodsSeventy-six adults (Mage = 20.97, 73.7% female) participated in a semi-structured clinical interview to determine NSSI history and completed a measure of trait emotion reactivity. Participants then provided state emotion reactivity ratings before and after a social rejection task, recovery period, and positive mood induction while physiological data was continuously recorded.ResultsAlthough individuals with a history of NSSI perceived themselves to be more emotionally reactive, these participants were not more physiologically reactive, nor were their state reactivity ratings significantly different from individuals without a history of NSSI.DiscussionResults suggest increased emotionality in response to a stressor is within normal bounds and not unique to individuals with a history of NSSI, and provide implications for future research on the etiology and treatment of NSSI.

Abstract Self-identification as a victim of violence may lead to increased negative emotions and stress and thus, may change both structure and function of the underlying neural network(s). In a trans-diagnostic sample of individuals who identified themselves as victims of violence and a matched control group with no prior exposure to violence, we employed a social exclusion paradigm, the Cyberball task, to stimulate the re-experience of stress. Participants were partially excluded in the ball-tossing game without prior knowledge. We analyzed group differences in brain activity and functional connectivity during exclusion versus inclusion in exclusion-related regions. The victim group showed increased anger and stress levels during all conditions. Activation patterns during the task did not differ between groups but an enhanced functional connectivity between the IFG and the right vmPFC distinguished victims from controls during exclusion. This effect was driven by aberrant connectivity in victims during inclusion rather than exclusion, indicating that victimization affects emotional responses and inclusion-related brain connectivity rather than exclusion-related brain activity or connectivity. Victims may respond differently to the social context itself. Enhanced negative emotions and connectivity deviations during social inclusion may depict altered social processing and may thus affect social interactions.

AbstractCyberball, the paradigm developed by Kipling D. Williams and colleagues (2000) to study ostracism, initially counted three experimental conditions: inclusion, exclusion, and overinclusion. The least known of these conditions is overinclusion, a social interaction characterized by excessive social attention (rather than fairness or no attention). This review provides an overview of original empirical studies implementing the overinclusion condition since its development. Following the PRISMA 2020 criteria, studies were drawn from four electronic databases (PubMed, Springer, PsycINFO, Web of Science), and Google Scholar was screened as a web-based academic search engine. In all, 33 studies met the inclusion criteria. Included studies described overinclusion specificities compared with exclusion and inclusion conditions, its effects in paradigms other than Cyberball, brain correlates associated with overinclusion, and its impact on clinical populations. 26 studies compared the inclusion and overinclusion conditions. 20 revealed significant differences between the two conditions, and 13 observed better mood and higher psychological needs satisfaction associated with the overinclusion condition. Studies investigating neural correlates revealed dACC involvement, P3 reduction, and P2 increase during overinclusion, supporting the idea of an ameliorative effect induced by the over-exposition to social stimulation. Findings on clinical populations suggest that overinclusion may help detect the social functioning of patients with psychological impairment. Despite the heterogeneity of the studies, our results showed that overinclusion can be associated with ameliorative psychological functioning. However, implementing standard guidelines for overinclusion will help provide a more thorough investigation of the psychological consequences of receiving excess social attention.

Objective Background Method Results Conclusion Implications This study tested the hypothesis that adults who report having been unloved/rejected in childhood are likely to show greater activation in specific brain regions than adults who report a history of parental love/acceptance.Interpersonal acceptance‐rejection theory (IPARTheory) argues that a specific set of effects of perceived parental acceptance and rejection appear with such near invariance across populations worldwide that it is likely that they are related to humankind's common biocultural evolution. If this is true, specific brain mechanisms are likely to differentially characterize responses to parental acceptance versus rejection.Using fMRI, the study experimentally manipulated rejection during a computer‐based ball‐toss game among 40 young adults. One group reported having been loved/accepted by both parents in childhood and self‐reported being psychologically well‐adjusted (AcceptedAdjusted, n = 20). The other group reported having been unloved/rejected by both parents in childhood and self‐reported being psychologically maladjusted (RejectedMaladjusted, n = 20).Members of the RejectedMaladjusted group—as compared to members of the AcceptedAdjusted group—had increased activation in the posterior cingulate cortex and anterior cingulate cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, insula, cuneus, precuneus, and amygdala. These brain regions critically support emotion processing.This study provides a foundation for understanding neural mechanisms underlying emotion processing, as influenced by adults' memories of parental love or lack of love (acceptance‐rejection) in childhood.Findings may help clinicians and practitioners design therapeutic interventions that can lead to structural and functional changes in brain areas associated with emotion regulation, possibly counteracting some of the negative effects of early emotional trauma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-identification as a victim of violence may lead to increased negative emotions and stress and thus, may change both structure and function of the underlying neural network(s). In a trans-diagnostic sample of individuals who identified themselves as victims of violence and a matched control group with no prior exposure to violence, we employed a social exclusion paradigm, the Cyberball task, to stimulate the re-experience of stress. Participants were partially excluded in the ball-tossing game without prior knowledge. We analyzed group differences in brain activity and functional connectivity during exclusion versus inclusion in exclusion-related regions. The victim group showed increased anger and stress levels during all conditions. Activation patterns during the task did not differ between groups but an enhanced functional connectivity between the IFG and the right vmPFC distinguished victims from controls during exclusion. This effect was driven by aberrant connectivity in victims during inclusion rather than exclusion, indicating that victimization affects emotional responses and inclusion-related brain connectivity rather than exclusion-related brain activity or connectivity. Victims may respond differently to the social context itself. Enhanced negative emotions and connectivity deviations during social inclusion may depict altered social processing and may thus affect social interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As social robots are being built with the aim of employing them in our social environments, it is crucial to understand whether we are inclined to include them in our social ingroups. Social inclusion might depend on various factors. To understand if people have the tendency to treat robots as their in-group members, we adapted a classical social psychology paradigm, namely the "Cyberball game", to a 3-D experimental protocol involving an embodied humanoid robot. In our experiment, participants played the ball-tossing game with the iCub robot and another human confederate. In our version, the human confederate was instructed to exclude the robot from the game. This was done to investigate whether participants would re-include the robot in the game. In addition, we examined if acquired technical knowledge about robots would affect social inclusion. To this aim, participants performed the Cyberball twice, namely before and after a familiarization phase when they were provided with technical knowledge about the mechanics and software related to the functionality of the robot. Results showed that participants socially re-included the robot during the task, equally before and after the familiarization session. The familiarization phase did not affect the frequency of social inclusion, suggesting that humans tend to socially include robots, independent of the knowledge they have about their inner functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For research purposes, it is generally accepted that experimental ostracism manipulations can lead to a reduction of participants' well-being. To eventually restore participants' well-being, researchers rely on post-experimental debriefings that discredit prior deception. However, evidence suggests that discredited beliefs can persevere. The present research investigates whether a potent debriefing procedure restores participants' well-being after an experimentally induced ostracism experience. In two studies, participants were either excluded or included in a Cyberball game, indicated their well-being, and were debriefed. In two additional conditions, participants were debriefed before indicating their well-being. Ostracism compared to inclusion led to decreased positive and increased negative mood. The debriefing did not counteract this effect (Studies 1 & 2). Unwanted aftereffects of the manipulation persevered for more than one day after the experimental session (Study 2). These findings question the effectiveness of debriefings and raise issues about research ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stressful social situations like social exclusion are particularly challenging for patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and often lead to dysfunctional reactive behaviour of aggression and withdrawal. The autonomous signature of these core symptoms of BPD remains poorly understood. The present study investigated the parasympathetic response to social exclusion in women with BPD (n = 62) and healthy controls (HC; n = 87). In a between-subjects design, participants experienced objective social exclusion or overinclusion in the Cyberball task, a virtual ball-tossing game. Need threat scores served as individual measures of perceived exclusion and the resulting frustration of cognitive–emotional needs. Five-minute measurements of high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV) at three time points (before, during, after Cyberball) indicated parasympathetic tone and regulation. We observed a trend towards lowered baseline HF-HRV in BPD vs. HC in line with previous findings. Interestingly, the parasympathetic response of patients with BPD to objective and perceived social exclusion fundamentally differed from HC: higher exclusion was associated with increased parasympathetic activation in HC, while this autonomic response was reversed and blunted in BPD. Our findings suggest that during social stress, the parasympathetic nervous system fails to display an adaptive regulation in patients with BPD, but not HC. Understanding the autonomous signature of the stress response in BPD allows the formulation of clinically relevant and biologically plausible interventions to counteract parasympathetic dysregulation in this clinical group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent Cyberball study has indicated that the experience of loss of control can affect how people process subsequent social exclusion. This "preexposure effect" supports the idea of a common cognitive system involved in the processing of different types of social threats. To test the validity of this assumption in the current study, we reversed the sequence of the preexposure setup. We measured the effects of social exclusion on the subsequent processing of loss of control utilizing event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and self-reports. In the control group (CG, n = 26), the transition to loss of control elicited significant increases in both the P3 amplitude and the self-reported negative mood. Replicating the results of the previous preexposure study, these effects were significantly reduced by the preexposure to an independent social threat (here: social exclusion). In contrast to previous findings, these effects were not modulated by the discontinuation (EG1disc, n = 25) or continuation (EG2cont, n = 24) of the preexposure threat. Given that the P3 effect is related to the violation of subjective expectations, these results support the notion that preexposure to a specific social threat has widespread effects on the individuals' expectancy of upcoming social participation and control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This study explores the impact of preferential inclusion on fulfilling basic needs following ambiguous or positive social feedback, considering the moderating effect of social anxiety. Methods: Participants (N = 438) received either positive or ambiguous social feedback and engaged in a social participation or preferential social inclusion task. They completed measures of the fulfillment of their fundamental needs, social anxiety, and other personality traits. Results: The results indicate that preferential social inclusion (Uberball condition) enhances the fulfillment of fundamental needs compared to social participation (Cyberball inclusion condition). Furthermore, receiving positive social feedback considerably strengthens the negative relationship between social anxiety and fundamental need fulfillment when followed by ordinary social participation relative to preferential social inclusion presumably because these individuals react more strongly to unmet expectations of extreme social acceptance. Discussion: This research suggests that individuals with high social anxiety may not experience the usual benefits of social participation unless they experience extreme social inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successfully generating plans, while seemingly straightforward, can be riddled with external and internal interferences. One important possible source of interference is ostracism, which has been consistently shown to induce negative psychological effects in various executive functions. Therefore, understanding the impact of unforeseen ostracism on planning is vital to a broad spectrum of the population, from university students, whose self-esteem partly derives from social acceptance, to healthcare professionals, whose performance oftentimes relies on peer feedback. An individual's ability to navigate through intended actions is an evaluation of their prospective memory (PM), which is traditionally divided into three consecutive phases: (1) planning, (2) recall, and (3) performance. This study primarily focused on the impacts of ostracism via Cyberball simulation on the first two phases of PM in the Tower of London (TOL), an assessment of executive functioning designed specifically to test planning ability during problem solving. Using Bayesian analysis, the study found substantial evidence of there being no difference in planning success between social exclusion and inclusion conditions. However, an individual's sex had significant effects on their planning success at baseline (i.e., inclusion condition). Surprisingly, there was no difference in performance between male participants and female participants when excluded, suggesting that ostracism may play an equalizing role. In addition, male participants both listed more moves at planning and recalled more moves, which led to no difference between sexes in terms of recall percentage. This study underscores a need to consider various factors such as sex and differing perceptions of ostracism when analyzing and addressing problem solving performance.

Abstract Background Social exclusion is often measured with the Cyberball paradigm, a computerized ball-tossing game. Most Cyberball studies, however, used self-report questionnaires, leaving the data vulnerable to reporter bias, and associations with individual characteristics have been inconsistent. Methods In this large-scale observational study, we video-recorded 4,813 10-year-old children during Cyberball and developed a real-time micro-coding method measuring facial expressions of anger, sadness and contempt, in a multi-ethnic population-based sample. We estimated associations between facial expressions and self-reported negative feelings, explored associations of child characteristics such as sex and parental national origin with observed and self-reported feelings during social exclusion, and tested associations of observed and self-reported feelings during social exclusion with behavior problems at age 14. Results Facial expressions of sadness and anger were associated with self-reported negative feelings during the game, but not with such feelings after the game. Further, girls reported to have had less negative feelings during the game than boys, but no such sex-differences were found in total observed emotions. Likewise, children with parents of Moroccan origin reported less negative feelings during the game than Dutch children, but their facial expressions did not indicate that they were differently affected. Last, observed emotions related negatively to later internalizing problems, whereas self-report on negative feelings during the game related positively to later internalizing and externalizing problems. Conclusions We show that facial expressions are associated with self-reported negative feelings during social exclusion, discuss that reporter-bias might be minimized using facial expressions, and find divergent associations of observed facial expressions and self-reported negative feelings with later internalizing problems.

Although vulnerable narcissism (VN) and avoidant personality (AP) share many characteristics, almost no research has been done to examine their differences. In this study, we examined the notion of VN and AP having similar overt presentations that stem from different underlying mechanisms. VN's and AP's relationships with explicit and implicit self-appraisals (i.e., interpretation biases, IB) were examined, under control/social acceptance conditions. Under the control condition, higher AP predicted negative explicit IB and no implicit IB, and higher VN showed the same trend. Following social acceptance, higher AP predicted negative explicit IB and positive implicit IB, whereas higher VN did not predict explicit IB, but predicted negative implicit IB. Results partly supported the hypotheses, and suggested that under neutral conditions, individuals tending towards AP or VN may present similarly. However, they differ in their response to positive social feedback, with AP benefiting from it, and VN having an increased negative implicit view of oneself. These results suggest that VN is a pathology of a more deeply disordered, unstable self-esteem, that may negatively respond to help efforts of positive affirmations made by others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Numerous studies have linked experiences of appearance-related interpersonal rejection to body dissatisfaction (BD), though few experimental studies have been conducted. This study assessed causal effects of appearance-related social exclusion during an online Cyberball game on state BD as well as potential moderators of this association. Methods: Young Chinese adults (60 women, 37 men; age 20.08 ± 1.32 years) were asked to provide an image of themselves that would be sent to other players prior to a visual perception study involving Cyberball, a virtual ball-tossing game that is used to elicit temporary social exclusion effects. Participants completed a trait Fear of Negative Appearance Evaluation (FNAE) measure before or after engaging in the Cyberball task in addition to post-task state measures of BD and positive mood facets. Results: Participants randomly assigned to the social exclusion condition (i.e., receiving 2 of 30 possible throws) reported significantly higher post-Cyberball state BD and significant happiness/energy level/self-confidence deficits compared to peers in a social inclusion condition (i.e., receiving 12 out of 30 throws). A hierarchical regression analysis indicated social exclusion condition membership and trait FNAE elevations, but not their interaction, were significant predictors of higher state BD scores, independent of the impact of gender. Conclusions: Social exclusion experiences linked to physical appearance are a significant causal influence on increases in state BD and positive mood decrements among young Chinese adults.

Social exclusion refers to the experience of rejection by one or more people during a social event and can induce pain-related sensations. Cyberball, a computer program, is one of the most common tools for analyzing social exclusion. Regions of the brain that underlie social pain include networks linked to the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Specifically, self-directed negative socially induced exclusion is associated with changes in DLPFC activity. Direct manipulation of this area may provide a better understanding of how the DLPFC can influence the perception of social exclusion and determine a causal role of the DLPFC. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was applied to both the left and right DLPFC to gauge different reactions to the Cyberball experience. It was found that there were elevated exclusion indices following right DLPFC rTMS; participants consistently felt more excluded when the right DLPFC was excited. This may relate to greater feelings of social pain when the right DLPFC is manipulated. These data demonstrate that direct manipulation of the DLPFC results in changes in responses to social exclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Social exclusion is often measured with the Cyberball paradigm, a computerized ball-tossing game. Most Cyberball studies, however, used self-report questionnaires, leaving the data vulnerable to reporter bias, and associations with individual characteristics have been inconsistent. Methods: In this large-scale observational study, we video-recorded 4,813 10-year-old children during Cyberball and developed a real-time micro-coding method measuring facial expressions of anger, sadness and contempt, in a multi-ethnic population-based sample. We estimated associations between facial expressions and self-reported negative feelings, explored associations of child characteristics such as sex and parental national origin with observed and self-reported feelings during social exclusion, and tested associations of observed and self-reported feelings during social exclusion with behavior problems at age 14. Results: Facial expressions of sadness and anger were associated with self-reported negative feelings during the game, but not with such feelings after the game. Further, girls reported to have had less negative feelings during the game than boys, but no such sex-differences were found in total observed emotions. Likewise, children with parents of Moroccan origin reported less negative feelings during the game than Dutch children, but their facial expressions did not indicate that they were differently affected. Last, observed emotions related negatively to later internalizing problems, whereas self-report on negative feelings during the game related positively to later internalizing and externalizing problems. Conclusions: We show that facial expressions are associated with self-reported negative feelings during social exclusion, discuss that reporter-bias might be minimized using facial expressions, and find divergent associations of observed facial expressions and self-reported negative feelings with later internalizing problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unstable interpersonal relationships and fear of abandonment are core symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD) that often intensify during stress. Psychosocial stress, which includes components of social exclusion and increases cortisol secretion, enhances emotional empathy in healthy individuals. Women with BPD, on the contrary, react with reduced emotional empathy. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of perceived social exclusion without accompanying cortisol increase on empathy in women with BPD and healthy women. To induce social exclusion, we randomized 98 women with BPD and 98 healthy women to either an exclusion or an overinclusion (control) condition of Cyberball, a virtual ball game. Subsequently, participants underwent the Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET), which assesses cognitive and emotional empathy. There was no increase in cortisol release after Cyberball. Cognitive empathy did not differ between groups or conditions. Women with BPD reported lower emotional empathy for positive emotions (group by valence interaction), but not for negative emotions. Exploratory analyses suggested that this effect might be more pronounced after social exclusion. Our results confirm previous findings that cognitive empathy does not differ between women with BPD and healthy women and extend this evidence to social exclusion. Emotional empathy in women with BPD seems to be more sensitive to the effects of stress or ambiguous social situations. Specifically, emotional empathy seems to be reduced for positive emotions, and might further decline after social exclusion. Empathic reactions to emotional stimuli of different valences and to specific emotions should be further investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined biopsychosocial stress of acute social pain in relation to chronic loneliness. Hypotheses: 1) Cyberball exclusion (vs. inclusion) would be associated with lower cortisol reactivity to a speech task, and 2) loneliness would moderate the relationship between social exclusion and cortisol reactivity to a speech task, such that higher loneliness would be linked to lower cortisol. Participants (n = 31, women, aged 18–25, 51.6% non-Hispanic white) were randomized to be excluded or included in a game of Cyberball, then completed a speech task. Salivary cortisol was measured at baseline, pre-speech, post-speech, and 15 minutes post-speech. Cortisol reactivity was calculated using area under the curve-increase (AUCi). ANOVA revealed a non-significant, meaningful effect of Cyberball exclusion on cortisol AUCi (p=.103, ηp2=.10), accounting for contraceptive use. Moderation analysis revealed among women with high loneliness, women in the exclusion condition had significantly lower cortisol reactivity than women in the inclusion condition (p=.001). For women with low and medium loneliness, there were no significant differences by Cyberball condition. In sum, lonely young women who are excluded may have hypocortisolemic responses to social stress. Results are consistent with literature suggesting that chronic stress is linked to lower cortisol responses, which is linked to negative physical health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Belongingness is a central biopsychosocial system. Challenges to belongingness (i.e. exclusion/ostracism) engender robust negative effects on affect and cognitions. Whether overinclusion – getting more than one's fair share of social attention – favourably impacts affect and cognitions remains an open question. This pre-registered meta-analysis includes twenty-two studies (N = 2757) examining overinclusion in the context of the Cyberball task. We found that the estimated overall effect size of overinclusion on positive affect was small but robust, and the effect on fundamental needs cognitions (belongingness, self-esteem, meaningful existence and control) was moderate in size and positive in direction. Notably, the effect sizes of overinclusion were smaller than the corresponding effects of exclusion. Finally, the effects of overinclusion on positive affect were greater for high, as compared to low, socially anxious individuals. Exploring the sequelae of the full range of inclusion experiences – from exclusion to overinclusion – may enrich our understanding of the functioning of the belongingness system as well as its interaction with another central biosocial system – the social status system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A painful experience affecting many children is social exclusion. The current study is a follow-up study, investigating change in neural activity during social exclusion as a function of peer preference. Peer preference was defined as the degree to which children are preferred by their peers and measured using peer nominations in class during four consecutive years for 34 boys. Neural activity was assessed twice with a one-year interval, using functional MRI during Cyberball (MageT1 = 10.3 years, MageT2 = 11.4 years). Results showed that change in neural activity during social exclusion differed as a function of peer preference for the a-priori defined region-of-interest of the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (subACC), such that relatively lower history of peer preference was associated with an increase in activity from Time1 to Time2. Exploratory whole brain results showed a positive association between peer preference and neural activity at Time2 in the left and right orbitofrontal gyrus (OFG). These results may suggest that boys with lower peer preference become increasingly sensitive to social exclusion over time, associated with increased activity in the subACC. Moreover, lower peer preference and associated lower activity within the OFG may suggest decreased emotion regulation as a response to social exclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual reality (VR) is a valuable research tool offering advantages in terms of high experimenter control and standardization in the simulation of vivid personal and social experiences. It has been used for assessments and training in social cognition with the use of virtual agents instead of face-to-face interactions - but its potential for the study of social emotion regulation has, perhaps surprisingly, largely remained untapped. The present study evaluates a novel immersive VR scenario designed to study the efficacy of social support by a virtual agent using a modified version of Cyberball, an established paradigm to induce the feeling of ostracism. Participants embodied a new pupil in a virtual school environment and played Cyberball, after which they either did or did not receive emotional support. Self-reports and psychophysiological markers demonstrated that the negative impact of social exclusion in Cyberball was successfully replicated, while participants also reported a significant improvement in emotional state after being supported by the virtual agent. These results indicate the potential of the developed scenario for research on social emotion regulation in immersive VR. Future studies could aim to test the efficacy of social support for people with difficulties in self-regulation, for example individuals with high social anxiety, with a view to developing training programs in VR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: the investigation of how interpersonal functioning affects eating psychopathology has been receiving increasing attention in the last decade. This study evaluates the impact of virtual social inclusion or ostracism on emotions, perceived stress, eating psychopathology, and the drive to binge or restrict in patients across the eating disorder spectrum. (2) Methods: a group of 122 adolescent and adult females with different eating disorder diagnoses were compared to 50 healthy peers with regards to their performance on, and responses to the Cyberball task, a virtual ball-tossing game. Each participant was randomly assigned to playing a social inclusion or a social exclusion block of the Cyberball task and completed self-report assessments of emotions, perceived stress and urge to restrict/binge before and after the task. (3) Results: patients with anorexia nervosa showed a more negative impact on psychological well-being evaluated with the need threat scale after the excluding block, while patients with bulimia nervosa reported more negative effects after the overincluding condition. Patients with binge eating disorder showed a reduction in specific negative emotions after the overincluding block, unlike all other participants. (4) Conclusions: findings show significant correlations between restraint thoughts in patients with bulimia nervosa and binge thoughts in patients with binge eating disorder after being exposed to the inclusion condition. Different reactions in cognitive and emotional states of patients with eating disorders after different interpersonal scenarios confirm the impact of inclusive or exclusive relationships on eating psychopathology, with specific and different responses across the eating disorder spectrum, that have been discussed, linked to their eating behavioral cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Females and males differ in stress reactivity, coping, and the prevalence rates of stress-related disorders. According to a neurocognitive framework of stress coping, the functional connectivity between the amygdala and frontal regions (including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), ventral anterior cingulate cortex (vACC), and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC)) plays a key role in how people deal with stress. In the current study, we investigated the effects of sex and stressor type in a within-subject counterbalanced design on the resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) of the amygdala and these frontal regions in 77 healthy participants (40 females). Both stressor types led to changes in subjective ratings, with decreasing positive affect and increasing negative affect and anger. Females showed higher amygdala–vACC and amygdala–mPFC rsFC for social exclusion than for achievement stress, and compared to males. Whereas a higher amygdala–vACC rsFC indicates the activation of emotion processing and coping, a higher amygdala–mPFC rsFC indicates feelings of reward and social gain, highlighting the positive effects of social affiliation. Thus, for females, feeling socially affiliated might be more fundamental than for males. Our data indicate interactions of sex and stressor in amygdala–frontal coupling, which translationally contributes to a better understanding of the sex differences in prevalence rates and stress coping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ostracism triggers negative emotions such as sadness, anger, and hurt feelings. Do targets of ostracism truthfully share their emotions with the sources of ostracism? Drawing on past research on social-functional accounts of emotions and interpersonal emotion regulation, we investigated the possibility that targets may misrepresent their emotions (i.e., gaming emotions). We conducted three experiments (N = 1058; two pre-registered) using an online ball-tossing game, in which participants were randomly assigned to be included or ostracized. Consistent with the literature, we found that ostracized individuals were more hurt, sad, and angry than included individuals. However, we found little and inconsistent evidence that ostracized (vs included) individuals misrepresented their emotional reactions to the sources. Further, Bayesian analyses offered more support against misrepresentation of emotions. These findings suggest that targets of ostracism truthfully communicated their social pain to the sources.

Research has shown that people evaluate others according to specific categories. As this phenomenon seems to transfer from human–human to human–robot interactions, in the present study we focused on (1) the degree of prior knowledge about technology, in terms of theoretical background and technical education, and (2) intentionality attribution toward robots, as factors potentially modulating individuals’ tendency to perceive robots as social partners. Thus, we designed a study where we asked two samples of participants varying in their prior knowledge about technology to perform a ball-tossing game, before and after watching a video where the humanoid iCub robot was depicted either as an artificial system or as an intentional agent. Results showed that people were more prone to socially include the robot after observing iCub presented as an artificial system, regardless of their degree of prior knowledge about technology. Therefore, we suggest that the way the robot was presented, and not the prior knowledge about technology, is likely to modulate individuals’ tendency to perceive the robot as a social partner.

Black women experience pronounced inequalities in alcohol use and sexual risk outcomes. Racial discrimination is a known contributor to health inequalities. However, Black women face unique and intersectional forms of discrimination beyond racial discrimination. The current study investigates how exclusion from four distinct social groups effects Black women's negative affect and risky health cognitions. Black women (N = 124; ages 18-29) were randomly assigned to be excluded in Cyberball by Black women, Black men, White women, or White men. Participants responded to measures of internalising (depressive, anxious) and externalising (anger) affect, heavy alcohol use willingness, and risky sex expectations. Participants primarily attributed exclusion from White women to racial discrimination, exclusion from Black men to gender discrimination, and exclusion from White men to both gender and racial discrimination. When excluded by White women, participants reported the highest levels of anger, depressive affect, and anxiety. Exclusion by White men predicted the greatest heavy drinking willingness, though exclusion by Black men predicted the greatest risky sex expectations. This study is the first to demonstrate that exclusion from different social groups leads to differing patterns of negative affect and risky health cognitions in young adult Black women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PurposeSocially disconnected individuals have worse health than those who feel socially connected. The mechanisms through which social disconnection influences physiological and psychological outcomes warrant study. The current study tested whether experimental manipulations of social exclusion, relative to inclusion, influenced subsequent cardiovascular (CV) and affective reactivity to socially evaluative stress.MethodsYoung adults (N = 81) were assigned through block randomization to experience either social exclusion or inclusion, using a standardized computer-based task (Cyberball). Immediately after exposure to Cyberball, participants either underwent a socially evaluative stressor or an active control task, based on block randomization. Physiological activity (systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), heart rate (HR)) and state anxiety were assessed throughout the experiment.ResultsExcluded participants evidenced a significant increase in cardiovascular and affective responses to a socially evaluative stressor. Included participants who underwent the stressor evidenced similar increases in anxiety, but systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and heart rate did not change significantly in response to the stressor.ConclusionsResults contribute to the understanding of physiological consequences of social exclusion. Further investigation is needed to test whether social inclusion can buffer CV stress reactivity, which would carry implications for how positive social factors may protect against the harmful effects of stress.

The importance of understanding how we anticipate and prepare for social rejection is underscored by the mental and physical toll of continual social vigilance. In this study, we investigate the impact of social rejection on anticipatory attentional processes using the well-known Cyberball task, a paradigm in which participants engage in a game of catch with virtual avatars who after an initial period of fair-play (inclusion condition) then exclude the participant from the game (exclusion condition). The degree of anticipatory attention allocated by subjects towards the avatars was assessed by measuring P3b responses towards the avatars preparatory actions (i.e. the phase preceding their exclusionary actions) using high density EEG. The results of the study show that relative to the inclusion, participants exhibit elevated levels of anticipatory attentional allocation towards the avatars during the exclusion block. This shift was however significantly moderated by participants self-reported cognitive regulation tendencies. Participants with higher levels of self-reported cognitive reappraisal tendencies showed larger anticipatory P3b increases from the inclusion to exclusion block relative to participants with reduced levels of reappraisal tendencies. These results highlight the impact of social exclusion on anticipatory neural processing and the moderating role of cognitive reappraisal on these effects.

Objective. Approbation of techniques that allow simulating a situation of social ostracism (ignoring, exclusion, rejection). Background. Social ostracism can be fleeting or manifest itself in a chronic protracted form, leading to depression, causing a sense of loss of meaning in life, and in extreme cases results in an antisocial reaction. The study of this phenomenon in the realities of Russian reality poses a number of theoretical (lack of an established theoretical basis) and, as a consequence, methodological problems for domestic scientists. Study design. Three experiments were conducted with different scenarios and methods of simulating inclusion/exclusion conditions, the technique of psychological debriefing was used. Threatened Needs Scale-Ostracism (Boykina, 2019 adaptation) was used in two experiments in two modifications: for adults and children. The calibration of the “Cyberball” inclusion/exclusion conditions parameters was carried out. Participants. The study included three samples: the «O’Train» approbation: N=66, 61 female, 5 -male, M – 18,3; «Cyberball»: N=96, 57 female, 39 male, M – 12,84; «O’Cam»: N=37, 19 female, 18 male, M – 13,6. Measurements. Experimental method, self-reporting methodology Scale of Threatened Needs- Ostracism, computer program “Cyberball” (Williams, Cheung, Choi, 2000), qualitative data analysis. Results. The tested techniques have confirmed their reliability as a method of simulating the situation of social ostracism. Conclusions. The following admission selection criteria are formulated as recommendations: 1) simulation of conditions of ignoring/exclusion/rejection, 2) the least psychological discomfort of the object, 3) viability of the research organization (including the number of participants in the experiment and the reliability of the legend), 4) avoidance of confrontation of participants. The methods tested by the authors can be used both in research and in applied goals, taking into account compliance with the ethical principles of psychological experiment.

Feeling of vulnerability, as a response to a situation of social rejection, has been found to be closely related to the development of paranoia-like thoughts. To date, several studies have attempted to uncover the mechanisms behind the relationship between social rejection and paranoia-like thoughts. However, the role of negative emotions in this context is still not fully understood. In two experimental online studies, using two different paradigms - Cyberball and Autobiographical memory recall - we aimed to investigate the impact of social rejection on paranoia-like thoughts through negative emotions. The responses of 183 participants from Study 1 (77.6% females) and 456 participants from Study 2 (88.2% females) collected online via Internet were analysed. The results revealed that social rejection itself did not increase paranoia-like thoughts, but the relationship was indirect-only mediated by a change in negative emotions. Both paradigms have been found to be effective in inducing feelings of social rejection, but the Autobiographical memory recall paradigm has shown a greater effect in increasing negative emotions following social rejection than the Cyberball game did, which may be related to including more social or even personal context, i.e. one's own memories. Future studies using more ecologically valid methods are recommended.

Previous studies indicated that the onsets of different social threats, such as threats to "belonging" and "control", are inconsistent with the subjective beliefs of social participation and require readjustment of expectations. Because a common cognitive system is assumed to be involved, the adjustment triggered by the experience of a single social threat should affect the processing of subsequent social interactions. We examined how preexposure to a loss of control affected social exclusion processing by using the Cyberball paradigm. An event-related brain component (P3) served as a probe for the state of the expectancy system, and self-reports reflected the subjective evaluations of the social threats. In the control group (n = 23), the transition to exclusion elicited a significant P3 effect and a high threat to belonging in the self-reports. Both effects were significantly reduced when the exclusion was preceded by preexposure to a loss of control (EG1disc, n = 23). These effects, however, depend on the offset of the preexposure. In case of a continuation (EG2cont, n = 24), the P3 effect was further reduced, but the threat to belonging was restored. We conclude that the P3 data are consistent with predictions of a common expectancy violation account, whereas self-reports are supposed to be affected by additional processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Patients with psychosomatic disorders suffer from social isolation thatmight further lead to destabilization and exacerbation of bodily symptoms via autonomic pathways. We aimed to investigate the influence of controlled social stress (model of social ostracism) on the autonomic nerve system (ANS) in an inpatient cohort with psychosomatic disorders. Methods: We examined heart rate variability (HRV), skin conductance (SC) and skin temperature (ST) as well as ECG-derived respiration rate (EDR) and subjective reports on stress during exposure to experimental social stress (cyberball game). Data were collected from 123 participants (f:m = 88:35, 42.01 ± 13.54 years) on admission and upon discharge from the university psychosomatic clinic. All data were recorded during baseline, inclusion and exclusion phases of the cyberball game as well as during the recovery phase. Results: We found significant changes between admission and discharge with a decline in parasympathetic-related HRV parameters (SDRR -3.20 ± 1.30ms, p = 0.026; RMSSD: -3.77 ± 1.28ms, p = 0.007) as well as a decrease in SC (-0.04 ± 0.17 µS, p = 0.019) and EDR (-0.01 ± 0.01Hz, p = 0.007), suggesting a drop in sympathetic tonus, with no changes in ST (p = 0.089) and subjective stress levels (p = 0.322). HRV parameters decreased during the cyberball game (SDRR p = 0.026; RMSSD p = 0.002; lnHF p < 0.001). In contrast, both SC (p < 0.001) and EDR (p < 0.001) increased during the game with SC being slightly lower during the exclusion phase. This can point toward a stimulation of sympathetic nervous systemduring game participation, which was concordant with the rise in subjective stress values (p < 0.001). ST showed a continuous, unspecific rise over time (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Our data demonstrate the decrease of ANS parameters during experimental social stress when data upon discharge were compared to those upon admission. These results are partially contradictory to previous studies that showed a rise in HRV in a psychiatric cohort over the course of (outpatient) treatment. Further research is required to help attributing these differences to effects of treatment or acute states relating to admission to or discharge from a psychosomatic department. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: Dissociative detachment experiences (e.g., derealization, absorption) underpin much psychopathology and are often researched in relation to co-occurring affective states such as shame, the latter being known to occur in situations involving actual or perceived negative social evaluation. The association between shame and dissociative detachment may also be moderated by individual differences in people's need to belong. The goal of the present study was to experimentally investigate the effects of social exclusion on shame and dissociative detachment depending on perceivers' need to belong., Methods: After measuring individual differences in need to belong and shame proneness, the Cyberball paradigm was utilized to communicate either social inclusion or exclusion. Following Cyberball, a sample of 281 participants completed measures of state shame and state dissociation., Results: Social exclusion increased dissociative detachment, and these effects were mediated by increases in state shame. These effects were particularly evident among people with a high need to belong., Limitations: Other individual differences such as rejection sensitivity may also moderate the relationship between exclusion and shame. While Cyberball can be used to investigate shame, it can only induce shame via social exclusion, whereas shame can also be elicited in other ways such as performance failure., Conclusions: Social exclusion can elicit shame, which is most acutely felt by those with a strong need to belong, and this aversive experience appears to be managed by dissociative detachment., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None'. ‘The authors received no funding from an external source’., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

ObjectivesPatients with psychosomatic disorders suffer from social isolation that might further lead to destabilization and exacerbation of bodily symptoms via autonomic pathways. We aimed to investigate the influence of controlled social stress (model of social ostracism) on the autonomic nerve system (ANS) in an inpatient cohort with psychosomatic disorders.MethodsWe examined heart rate variability (HRV), skin conductance (SC) and skin temperature (ST) as well as ECG-derived respiration rate (EDR) and subjective reports on stress during exposure to experimental social stress (cyberball game). Data were collected from 123 participants (f:m = 88:35, 42.01 ± 13.54 years) on admission and upon discharge from the university psychosomatic clinic. All data were recorded during baseline, inclusion and exclusion phases of the cyberball game as well as during the recovery phase.ResultsWe found significant changes between admission and discharge with a decline in parasympathetic-related HRV parameters (SDRR −3.20 ± 1.30 ms, p = 0.026; RMSSD: −3.77 ± 1.28 ms, p = 0.007) as well as a decrease in SC (−0.04 ± 0.17 μS, p = 0.019) and EDR (−0.01 ± 0.01 Hz, p = 0.007), suggesting a drop in sympathetic tonus, with no changes in ST (p = 0.089) and subjective stress levels (p = 0.322). HRV parameters decreased during the cyberball game (SDRR p = 0.026; RMSSD p = 0.002; lnHF p < 0.001). In contrast, both SC (p < 0.001) and EDR (p < 0.001) increased during the game with SC being slightly lower during the exclusion phase. This can point toward a stimulation of sympathetic nervous system during game participation, which was concordant with the rise in subjective stress values (p < 0.001). ST showed a continuous, unspecific rise over time (p < 0.001).ConclusionOur data demonstrate the decrease of ANS parameters during experimental social stress when data upon discharge were compared to those upon admission. These results are partially contradictory to previous studies that showed a rise in HRV in a psychiatric cohort over the course of (outpatient) treatment. Further research is required to help attributing these differences to effects of treatment or acute states relating to admission to or discharge from a psychosomatic department.

We examined the ability of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-3 (MMPI-3) scales to predict reflexive reactions to rejection elicited via a Cyberball task. In an effort to expand the criterion-related and incremental validity knowledge of the MMPI-3, we specifically focused on scale associations with the following adverse reflexive reactions: feelings of rejection, low positive and high negative affect, and high perceived threats to social needs. We hypothesized 10 substantive scales that assess negative emotionality, self-esteem, paranoia, and interpersonal difficulties to be positively associated with these adverse reactions, while we expected four scales indicative of interpersonal antagonism to be inversely related. The sample included 180 undergraduate students (80.6% female, 17.2% male; 59.5% White, 40.5% people of color), and analyses were conducted using the full sample and race-based subsamples. Results partially supported hypotheses, most notably in the case of indicators of mood/negative emotionality, Self-Doubt, and Self-Importance. Results were largely consistent across race-based subsamples with some notable exceptions. Our findings provide support for the validity of the MMPI-3 scales and their ability to assess reactions to an interpersonal stressor via a behavioral paradigm. Limitations (e.g., reliance on college student sample) and future directions (e.g., need for replication with larger samples) are discussed. Public Significance Statement: In a sample of college students [59.5% White and 40.5% people of color (POC)], this study examined MMPI-3 scales' associations with self-report of threatened fundamental needs, overall positive and negative affect, and feelings of rejection after an ostracism experience. The majority of examined scales demonstrated relationships to ostracism reactions in expected directions, providing novel construct validity evidence for select MMPI-3 scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research and theory indicate that self-efficacy can be influenced by factors related to persuasion, experiences of success, and emotional states. These factors can include situations that challenge people’s beliefs about their abilities. Social exclusion is associated with deprivation of the need for control, low self-control, and low self-esteem. This study examined whether social exclusion might affect general self-efficacy beliefs. It was predicted that self-efficacy would be lower in the exclusion condition than in the inclusion condition and that satisfaction of the need for control and belonging would mediate the exclusion effect on self-efficacy. Feelings of control and belonging were manipulated using a Cyberball game in which participants were excluded or included in the online ball-tossing game. The results confirmed the hypotheses. Self-efficacy, belonging, and control were lower in ostracism than in the inclusion condition. Control and belonging were positively related to self-efficacy and mediated the effect of ostracism on self-efficacy. Research suggests that creating an environment that satisfies control and relatedness needs may foster self-efficacy and that each need is important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]