The Impact of Exclusion from Close Versus Distant Relationships on Inhibitory Control: An ERP Study

Previous research has not fully addressed the distinction between different sources of exclusion, focusing predominantly on how being excluded by strangers affects inhibitory control. To address this gap, this study employs a Go/Nogo task to examine how exclusion by individuals with varying degrees of social proximity (close vs. distant) affects inhibitory control. The results revealed that exclusion by both friends (p = 0.018) and strangers (p = 0.001) elicited significantly greater N270 amplitudes compared to inclusion by others. Conversely, the amplitude of the LPC was larger in the inclusion by others category than in both the friend (p = 0.011) and stranger (p < 0.001) exclusion categories. These results suggest that social exclusion triggers a state of heightened alertness and impairs inhibitory control, regardless of the source of the relationship. This is evidenced by the lack of significant differences in N270 and LPC amplitudes between friend and stranger exclusion. These results suggest that while the cognitive control failure theory provides a reasonable explanation for certain aspects of the data, it may not fully account for the observed phenomena. By contrast, the relevant theory of social exclusion-which emphasizes both resources and motivation-provides a better explanation for these phenomena. This study contributes to understanding the inhibitory control mechanisms underlying behavioral responses after social exclusion, and the findings further support the value of theories that emphasize both resources and motivation when interpreting such responses.