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Ostracism via virtual chat room-Effects on basic needs, anger and pain
Ana Paula Gonçalves Donate1, Lucas Murrins Marques1,2, Olivia Morgan Lapenta1,2
1Social and Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Center for Health and Biological Sciences, Mackenzie Presbyterian University, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Plos One
|September 7, 2017
Summary
Social ostracism, the pain of exclusion, was studied in virtual interactions. Researchers found that exclusion in a controlled chat room setting negatively impacted social needs and emotional well-being, causing feelings of hurt.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Virtual Social Dynamics
Background:
- Ostracism, the experience of social exclusion, is a significant source of social pain.
- Existing paradigms like Cyberball may not fully capture the nuances of virtual social exclusion.
- Understanding the impact of ostracism in digital environments is crucial for well-being.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate a more realistic experimental paradigm for inducing social ostracism in virtual interactions.
- To assess the effects of this new paradigm on participants' basic social needs, emotional states, and feelings of pain.
- To provide a controlled yet realistic method for studying virtual ostracism.
Main Methods:
- A novel chat room paradigm was created, involving controlled social dialogue between participants and confederates.
- Social exclusion was manipulated by varying the proportion of messages received by participants (15% for exclusion, 33% for inclusion).
- Participant responses (N=54) were analyzed for basic social needs, emotional experience, and self-reported pain.
Main Results:
- Participants in the exclusion condition reported lower levels of basic social needs compared to those in the inclusion condition.
- Exclusion led to significantly greater feelings of anger.
- Excluded participants reported heightened levels of specific self-pain feelings, described as 'tortured' and 'hurt'.
Conclusions:
- The developed chat room paradigm effectively induces social ostracism in a controlled and realistic experimental setting.
- Virtual social exclusion negatively impacts fundamental social needs and emotional well-being.
- This paradigm offers a valuable tool for future research into the psychological effects of digital social exclusion.
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