Effects of Social Exclusion on Cardiovascular and Affective Reactivity to a Socially Evaluative Stressor

Williamson, Timothy J.; Thomas, KaMala S.; Eisenberger, Naomi I.; Stanton, Annette L.

doi:10.1007/s12529-018-9720-5

Cited by 29 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…As proposed by Mason (1968), emotional stimuli such as social evaluation and exclusion can also trigger the stress response. This idea has been confirmed by more recent studies (Williamson et al, 2018) investigating the effect of social exclusion on cardiovascular and affective responses in response to a social evaluative stressor. Excluded participants showed increased cardiovascular and anxiety responses to the stressor.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 57%

The Verbal Interaction Social Threat Task: A New Paradigm Investigating the Effects of Social Rejection in Men and Women

et al. 2019

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In recent years, digital communication and social media have taken an indispensable role in human society. Social interactions are no longer bound to real-life encounters, but more often happen from behind a screen. Mimicking an online communication platform, we developed a new, fMRI compatible, social threat paradigm to investigate sex differences in reactions to social rejection. During the Verbal Interaction Social Threat Task (VISTTA), participants initiate 30 short conversations by selecting one of four predefined opening sentences. Two computerized interlocutors respond to the opening sentence mostly with negative comments and rejections toward the participant, which should induce social-evaluative threat. Physiological and subjective responses were measured, before, during, and after the VISTTA in 61 (29 male and 32 female) first year students who received either mostly negative ( n = 31; threat group) or neutral comments ( n = 30; control group). Two-level behavioral validation included social threat-induced mood changes in participants, and interlocutor evaluation. The latter consisted of multiple variables such as “willingness to cooperate” after every conversation, an overall fairness evaluation of interlocutors, and evaluations per reaction indicating how positive or negative it was received. We acquired additional physiological measures including cortisol assays via saliva samples, heart rate, and blood pressure. Confirming our hypotheses, peer rejection and exclusion during the VISTTA led to less willingness to cooperate and lower fairness evaluation of interlocutors. It also induced feelings of anger and surprise and lower happiness in the social-threat group. Women showed overall higher emotion ratings compared to men. Contrary to our a priori hypothesis, the VISTTA did not induce cortisol and heart rate increases. However, the stable cortisol response in women in the threat group does not follow the circadian decline and might reflect an endocrinological response. The decline in cortisol response in men in both the threat and control group could indicate faster habituation to the VISTTA. Taken together, these findings indicate effects of social-evaluative threat on a behavioral level, and more moderate effects on the emotional and physiological level. Sex differences in affective and cortisol responses may indicate that women are more susceptible for the social-evaluative threat than men. With a realistic implementation of verbal, interactive, and social components, the VISTTA is designed as an fMRI paradigm that can be applied to elucidate the neural representation of social-evaluative threat.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 57%

The Verbal Interaction Social Threat Task: A New Paradigm Investigating the Effects of Social Rejection in Men and Women

et al. 2019

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“…There is a strong positive relation between an individual's sense of interpersonal belonging and their ratings of happiness and subjective well-being (McAdams and Bryant, 1987). While a lack of social bonds, or explicit feelings of social exclusion, contribute to feelings of anxiety (Baumeister and Tice, 1990;Leary, 1990;Williamson et al, 2018), other mental health outcomes, including depression, loneliness, and social anxiety, are greatly reduced when college students experience a sense of belonging (O'Keeffe, 2013;Stebleton et al, 2014;Raymond and Sheppard, 2018). The need to belong may be particularly pronounced in college students and appears to serve a protective function when satisfied.…”

Section: Sense Of Belongingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotional Intelligence, Belongingness, and Mental Health in College Students

2020

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Mental health problems are prevalent amongst today's college students and psychosocial stress has been identified as a strong contributing factor. Conversely, research has documented that emotional intelligence (EQ) is a protective factor for depression, anxiety and stress (mental health problems). However, the underlying mechanism whereby EQ may support stronger mental health is currently not well understood. This study used regression analyses to examine the hypothesis that belongingness (inclusion, rejection) partially mediates the effects of EQ (attention, clarity, repair) on psychological well-being in a large sample (N = 2,094) of undergraduate students. Results supported the mediation hypotheses for all three EQ components and highlighted that the effects of rejection on psychological well-being were particularly strong. In line with prior research, our results indicate that prevention and intervention efforts with college students could explicitly target EQ skills in an effort to reduce perceived rejection and promote student well-being.

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“…Although the association between ostracism and general psychological distress has been well supported in the literature, there is limited research on how ostracism is related to sleeping quality, which is the focus of the present paper. As stress can predict sleeping problems (e.g., Linton, 2004), and being ostracized is a powerful and ubiquitous social stressor (Riva, Wesselmann, Wirth, Carter‐Sowell, & Williams, 2014; Williams, 2009; Williamson, Thomas, Eisenberger, & Stanton, 2018), the experiences of such events may also impact upon sleep. According to the TNTM (Williams, 2009), individuals often ruminate and worry on their ostracism (i.e., they are cognitively aroused ) which may delay sleep onset and impair sleep quality.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive arousal mediates the relationship between perceived ostracism and sleep quality but it is not moderated by experiential avoidance

et al. 2020

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Previous research suggests that longer-term perceived ostracism is related to poor sleep quality. In this study, we investigated the mediating effect of cognitive arousal on the perceived ostracism-sleep quality relationship. We also investigated whether experiential avoidance was a moderator of the cognitive arousal-sleep quality relationship. Participants (N = 251) were recruited through online research portals to take part in an online survey. A path analysis was used to test a moderated mediation effect between variables. It was found that cognitive arousal mediated the perceived ostracism-sleep quality relationship; however, experiential avoidance was not a significant moderator. These findings suggest that further research needs to be conducted to elucidate the mechanism of experiential avoidance to account for when it may impact sleep quality. Moreover, treatment interventions targeted at reducing cognitive arousal (e.g., cognitive behavioural therapy) prior to sleep are likely to bear some fruit.

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Effects of Social Exclusion on Cardiovascular and Affective Reactivity to a Socially Evaluative Stressor

Cited by 29 publications

References 65 publications

The Verbal Interaction Social Threat Task: A New Paradigm Investigating the Effects of Social Rejection in Men and Women

The Verbal Interaction Social Threat Task: A New Paradigm Investigating the Effects of Social Rejection in Men and Women

Emotional Intelligence, Belongingness, and Mental Health in College Students

Cognitive arousal mediates the relationship between perceived ostracism and sleep quality but it is not moderated by experiential avoidance

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