How Ostracism Influences Behavior and the Effects of Pre-existing Social Anxiety

Abstract

In this study, we are examining whether social rejection and ostracism influence behavior and the effects that preexisting social anxiety plays. We asked participants to complete the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (BFNE) to evaluate the fear of negative judgment a person feels. Participants were also asked to play an online Cyberball game and completed four blocks of an Approach-Avoidance task to determine their tendency to approach or avoid stimuli in their environment. It is hypothesized that social rejection will motivate individuals to approach other people much more quickly. Furthermore, it is also hypothesized that the fear of negative evaluation would predict slower approach times. A total of 213 participants were gathered through Prolific. Only individuals who identified as either black or white were recruited. We ran an ANOVA test to compare how fast subjects approach the smiling and neutral faces. Keywords: Social anxiety, Cyberball, BFNE, social rejection, ostracism, approach-avoidance task