The Arousal Effect of Exclusionary and Inclusionary Situations on Social Affiliation Motivation and Its Subsequent Influence on Prosocial Behavior

Abstract

Given the negative costs of exclusion and the relevance of belongingness for humans, the experience of exclusion influences social affiliation motivation, which in turn is a relevant predictor of prosocial behavior. Skin conductance is a typical measure of the arousal elicited by emotions. Hence, we argued that both inclusion and exclusion will increase skin conductance level due to the increase of either positive affect or anger affects, respectively. Moreover, we argued that emotional arousal is also related to social affiliation motivation and prosocial behavior. A total of 48 students were randomly allocated to either an inclusionary or exclusionary condition and their skin conductance levels were recorded during an experiment in which they completed an online questionnaire and played the game “Cyberball.” Results indicated that (a) individuals who perceived high exclusion felt angrier than individuals perceiving high inclusion, who feel positive affect; (b) no differences were evidenced in terms of skin conductance between exclusion and inclusion situations; (c) over-aroused individuals were less motivated to affiliate; and (d) individuals with lower affiliation motivation behaved in a less prosocial way. The results were congruent to the argument that behaving prosocially may be a way to gain the desired affiliation.

Spontaneous Breathing Rate Variations Linked to Social Exclusion and Emotion Self-assessment

“…This study analyses the relationship between the affective states elicited by social exclusion and the spontaneous BR modulations linked to different emotional processing stages. In regard to the subjective affective states, in agreement with previous studies (Beames et al, 2019 ; Cuadrado et al, 2021 ), social exclusion increased negative affect and decreased positive affect. An inverse pattern was found for the inclusion situation, where lower values and variability were found for negative affect, whereas positive affect predominated.…”

“…The procedure was the same as that explained in Cuadrado et al ( 2021 ). The experiment was based on the Cyberball task (4th version), usually employed in studies on exclusion, ostracism, popularity or social anxiety (Williams & Jarvis, 2006 ).…”

Does Cyberostracism Reduce Prosocial Behaviors? The Protective Role of Psychological Resilience

“…Individuals suffering from cyberostracism do not have to worry about real-life social situations such as offline ostracism [ 37 ], which makes it easy for them to deviate from moral constraints in action. Therefore, they are more prone to feel anger after being ostracized, and more likely to express anger without hesitation [ 35 , 38 ]. Such out-of-control behavior caused by the decline in self-regulation may be manifested on the internet with more aggressive [ 15 , 16 , 39 ] and less prosocial [ 40 ] behaviors.…”