The Weight of a Like on Social Networks: How Self-Monitoring Moderates the Effect of Cyber-Ostracism

Cyber-ostracism is an experience that, similar to the ostracism occurring within in-person relational contexts, gives rise to negative psychological consequences, leading to negative emotional reactions, and threatening the basic needs of each individual-belonging, self-esteem, meaningful existence, and control. The present study aimed to explore the possible moderating role of self-monitoring on the impact of cyber-ostracism on people's emotions and need satisfaction. We employed the Ostracism Online paradigm, a research tool resembling a social media platform, that allows researchers to manipulate the number of likes that participants receive as a cue of cyber-ostracism. A total of 212 participants were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions (Ostracism Online: cyber-ostracism vs. cyber-inclusion). After completing measures related to their social media usage and the self-monitoring scale, participants were exposed to the Ostracism Online paradigm and then were asked to complete measures related to their emotional reactions and need satisfaction. Results highlighted a different moderating role of self-monitoring on emotions and need satisfaction. Specifically, in the cyber-ostracism condition, participants with higher levels of self-monitoring reported higher levels of negative emotions compared to participants with lower levels of self-monitoring. Differently, we only found an effect of self-monitoring on the control dimension of need satisfaction. In particular, included participants with higher levels of self-monitoring reported higher levels of perceived control compared to included participants with lower levels of self-monitoring. Our findings contribute to expanding our understanding of self-monitoring and its role in moderating the effects of cyber-ostracism that may occur within social media.