THE EFFECT OF CYBERBALL EXCLUSION ON AUTOMATIC APPROACH BEHAVIOR

Abstract

The social reconnection hypothesis claims that people who feel socially excluded feel a strong desire to form bonds with other people, likely with people who have not yet made them feel excluded. Prior studies have shown that people who feel excluded aim to form social connections. The purpose of the present study was to test if the desire to reconnect is shown automatically and reflexively. We hypothesized that participants excluded by Cyberball would approach happy faces faster than neutral faces during the Approach-Avoidance Task (AAT) compared to included participants. The participants in this study consisted of thirty-three adults recruited on the Prolific platform. They played a game of Cyberball where they were either included or excluded. Those in the included condition were tossed the ball throughout the whole game. Those in the excluded condition received only two tosses at the beginning of the game and then were never tossed the ball again. After playing Cyberball, the participants completed the Approach Avoidance Task (AAT), which instructs the participant to either approach or avoid a face on the screen. The participants completed the AAT twice. For the first AAT, they approached happy faces and avoided neutral faces. For the second AAT, they approached neutral faces and avoided happy faces. The results show that the excluded group almost approached happy faces faster than neutral faces compared to the included group. This effect approached statistical significance. However, a power analysis showed that if the effect size is maintained, only four more participants in each group are needed to attain significance. Thus, these results may show that the desire to reconnect after exclusion is shown automatically.