Short-Term Social Exclusion Alters Self-Prioritisation

Project and main findings

Understanding the mechanisms behind social exclusion is essential, as it may reveal how such experiences intensify, rather than alleviate, feelings of loneliness. 

In this study, we investigated the causal link between short-term social exclusion and self-processing using a novel approach that integrates two methodologies. A group of young adults (N=118, aged 18–39) underwent a social exclusion manipulation via the Cyberball game, followed by an associative matching task to assess self-prioritization - a core aspect of social cognition - alongside emotion and reward prioritization. Participants’ affective states and perceived loneliness were also measured.

Our findings highlight three key points. First, social exclusion weakened self-prioritization, with excluded participants exhibiting a significantly smaller self-prioritization effect than those included. This provides the first evidence that short-term exclusion may shift attention away from the self rather than toward it. Second, this reduction in self-prioritization was independent of emotion and reward prioritization, suggesting these effects operate separately. Third, we found no link between prioritization effects and perceived loneliness, implying that brief exclusion may not be enough to alter overall feelings of loneliness.

These results contribute to the ongoing debate on whether social exclusion redirects attention inward to assert self-importance or outward to enhance social awareness and fulfill affiliative needs. The findings suggest that interventions targeting the effects of social exclusion should account for the nuanced relationship between self-processing and social cognition.

Datasets

Associative matching tasks. Participants performed three tasks to assess prioritization effects for person-related information, emotional valence, and value-based rewards. These tasks relied on an associative matching procedure linking simple geometric shapes, with emotional valence, rewards, or self- and other-relevant information. In the Personal task, links were formed between geometric shapes (e.g., rectangle, hexagon, star) and arbitrary word labels (e.g., rectangle-self, hexagon-friend, star-unknown). In the Valence Task, participants memorise associations between simple geometric shapes (e.g., square, circle, triangle) and schematic sad, happy and neutral emotional expressions (e.g., square-happy, circle-sad, triangle-neutral). In the Reward task, associations were made between geometric shapes (e.g., oval, pentagon, diamond) and monetary values (e.g., oval-€0, pentagon-€25, diamond-€50).

Cyberball task (inclusion group = coded =1) and Exclusion group coded = 2). The Cyberball task is a well-known method for studying social exclusion. Participants were randomly assigned to one two conditions in a between-group design. In line with previous studies , in the social inclusion condition, the virtual players pass the ball to the participant 10 out of the total 30 throws. In the social exclusion condition, after the first two throws, the virtual players stop passing the ball to the participant for the rest of the game.

Questionnaires. After the Cyberball game, participants in each group were asked to report how often they felt they received the ball (on a scale from 0% to 100%) and they chose between pairs of statements: "I felt excluded" or "I felt included," and "I felt ignored" or "I did not feel ignored." These questions were meant as checks of the social inclusion/exclusion manipulations.  After the 3 associative tasks, participants completed the Italian version of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS).

一、项目与主要研究发现

理解社会排斥背后的机制至关重要，因其可揭示此类经历如何加剧而非缓解孤独感。

本研究整合两种研究方法，采用创新范式探讨短期社会排斥与自我加工（self-processing）之间的因果关联。招募118名青年成年人（N=118，年龄18~39岁），通过Cyberball游戏（Cyberball）实施社会排斥操纵，随后完成关联匹配任务，以评估自我优先化（self-prioritization）效应——这是社会认知的核心维度之一——同时一并测量情绪优先化与奖赏优先化效应。此外，研究还对参与者的情绪状态与感知到的孤独感进行了测评。

本研究结果主要包含三点核心结论。第一，社会排斥会削弱自我优先化效应：被排斥组参与者的自我优先化效应显著弱于被接纳组参与者，这为短期社会排斥会将注意力从自我转向外部而非聚焦自我提供了首个实证证据。第二，自我优先化效应的减弱与情绪优先化、奖赏优先化效应相互独立，提示这些效应的运作机制彼此分离。第三，研究未发现优先化效应与感知孤独感之间存在关联，这意味着短暂的社会排斥或许不足以改变个体整体的孤独感体验。

上述结果为当前学界关于社会排斥究竟会将注意力转向内侧以强化自我重要性，还是转向外侧以提升社会觉察力并满足归属需求的争论提供了新的实证支撑。研究结果提示，针对社会排斥效应的干预措施，应充分考虑自我加工与社会认知之间的复杂关联。

二、数据集

2.1 关联匹配任务
参与者需完成三项任务，分别评估个体在人际相关信息、情绪效价与基于价值的奖赏维度上的优先化效应。三项任务均采用关联匹配范式，将简单几何图形分别与情绪效价、奖赏价值或自我与他人相关信息进行绑定。在Personal任务（Personal task）中，几何图形（如矩形、六边形、星形）与任意词汇标签（如矩形-自我、六边形-朋友、星形-陌生人）建立绑定关联。在情绪效价任务（Valence Task）中，参与者需记忆简单几何图形（如正方形、圆形、三角形）与示意图式悲伤、快乐与中性情绪表情的关联，即正方形-快乐、圆形-悲伤、三角形-中性。在奖赏任务（Reward task）中，几何图形（如椭圆形、五边形、菱形）与货币价值（如椭圆形-0欧元、五边形-25欧元、菱形-50欧元）建立绑定关联。

2.2 Cyberball任务（Cyberball）
Cyberball任务是学界广泛使用的社会排斥研究范式。本研究采用被试间设计，将参与者随机分配至两种实验条件之一。参照既往研究范式，社会接纳组中，虚拟玩家在总计30次传球中会10次将球传给参与者；而社会排斥组中，在前两次传球后，虚拟玩家将不再向参与者传球，直至游戏结束。本研究中，接纳组编码为1，排斥组编码为2。

2.3 问卷测评
在完成Cyberball游戏后，两组参与者需报告其感知到的接球频率（采用0%~100%的评分量表），并完成二选一陈述题：「我感到被排斥」或「我感到被接纳」，以及「我感到被忽视」或「我未感到被忽视」，以此检验社会接纳/排斥的操纵有效性。在完成三项关联匹配任务后，参与者需填写意大利语版的积极与消极情感量表（Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, PANAS）。