The Impact of Social Rejection on Conformity

Abstract

The current study investigated whether rejection increases the likelihood of conforming to others' opinions. Cyberball was used to simulate feelings of either rejection or inclusion through a ball-tossing game. It was hypothesized that rejected participants would be more likely then included participants to base decisions on the social popularity of the choices. The participants chose between pairs of household objects and indicated how likely they were to purchase them, with only two types of ratings to guide their decisions. One rating reflected the social approval of the object, and the other rating reflected the result of a general quality test. The hypothesis was not supported as most participants based their decisions on the quality ratings regardless of being rejected or included. It was found, however, that women chose the socially-approved products significantly more than men after being rejected.