Decreased interoceptive accuracy following social exclusion

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Social Psychology

Background:

• Social affiliation is a fundamental human need.
• Social exclusion elicits strong negative emotional responses.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of social exclusion on interoceptive accuracy.
• To examine how ostracism affects the perception of internal bodily signals.

Main Methods:

• Participants were subjected to social inclusion or exclusion using the Cyberball virtual ball-tossing game.
• Interoceptive accuracy was measured using a heartbeat perception task.

Main Results:

• Interoceptive accuracy significantly decreased in participants who experienced social exclusion.
• No significant change in interoceptive accuracy was observed in the included group.

Conclusions:

• Social exclusion negatively affects the ability to accurately perceive internal bodily signals.
• Findings may relate to the overlap between social and physical pain processing.
• Results suggest altered attention allocation between internal and external cues following exclusion.