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How social exclusion modulates social information processing: A behavioural dissociation between facial expressions and gaze direction
Social exclusion is a painful experience that is felt as a threat to the human need to belong and can lead to increased aggressive and anti-social behaviours, and results in emotional and cognitive numbness. Excluded individuals also seem to show an automatic tuning to positivity: they tend to incre...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5884539/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29617410 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0195100 |
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author | Bossi, Francesco Gallucci, Marcello Ricciardelli, Paola |
author_facet | Bossi, Francesco Gallucci, Marcello Ricciardelli, Paola |
author_sort | Bossi, Francesco |
collection | PubMed |
description | Social exclusion is a painful experience that is felt as a threat to the human need to belong and can lead to increased aggressive and anti-social behaviours, and results in emotional and cognitive numbness. Excluded individuals also seem to show an automatic tuning to positivity: they tend to increase their selective attention towards social acceptance signals. Despite these effects known in the literature, the consequences of social exclusion on social information processing still need to be explored in depth. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of social exclusion on processing two features that are strictly bound in the appraisal of the meaning of facial expressions: gaze direction and emotional expression. In two experiments (N = 60, N = 45), participants were asked to identify gaze direction or emotional expressions from facial stimuli, in which both these features were manipulated. They performed these tasks in a four-block crossed design after being socially included or excluded using the Cyberball game. Participants’ empathy and self-reported emotions were recorded using the Empathy Quotient (EQ) and PANAS questionnaires. The Need Threat Scale and three additional questions were also used as manipulation checks in the second experiment. In both experiments, excluded participants showed to be less accurate than included participants in gaze direction discrimination. Modulatory effects of direct gaze (Experiment 1) and sad expression (Experiment 2) on the effects of social exclusion were found on response times (RTs) in the emotion recognition task. Specific differences in the reaction to social exclusion between males and females were also found in Experiment 2: excluded male participants tended to be less accurate and faster than included male participants, while excluded females showed a more accurate and slower performance than included female participants. No influence of social exclusion on PANAS or EQ scores was found. Results are discussed in the context of the importance of identifying gaze direction in appraisal theories. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5884539 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-58845392018-04-20 How social exclusion modulates social information processing: A behavioural dissociation between facial expressions and gaze direction Bossi, Francesco Gallucci, Marcello Ricciardelli, Paola PLoS One Research Article Social exclusion is a painful experience that is felt as a threat to the human need to belong and can lead to increased aggressive and anti-social behaviours, and results in emotional and cognitive numbness. Excluded individuals also seem to show an automatic tuning to positivity: they tend to increase their selective attention towards social acceptance signals. Despite these effects known in the literature, the consequences of social exclusion on social information processing still need to be explored in depth. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of social exclusion on processing two features that are strictly bound in the appraisal of the meaning of facial expressions: gaze direction and emotional expression. In two experiments (N = 60, N = 45), participants were asked to identify gaze direction or emotional expressions from facial stimuli, in which both these features were manipulated. They performed these tasks in a four-block crossed design after being socially included or excluded using the Cyberball game. Participants’ empathy and self-reported emotions were recorded using the Empathy Quotient (EQ) and PANAS questionnaires. The Need Threat Scale and three additional questions were also used as manipulation checks in the second experiment. In both experiments, excluded participants showed to be less accurate than included participants in gaze direction discrimination. Modulatory effects of direct gaze (Experiment 1) and sad expression (Experiment 2) on the effects of social exclusion were found on response times (RTs) in the emotion recognition task. Specific differences in the reaction to social exclusion between males and females were also found in Experiment 2: excluded male participants tended to be less accurate and faster than included male participants, while excluded females showed a more accurate and slower performance than included female participants. No influence of social exclusion on PANAS or EQ scores was found. Results are discussed in the context of the importance of identifying gaze direction in appraisal theories. Public Library of Science 2018-04-04 /pmc/articles/PMC5884539/ /pubmed/29617410 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0195100 Text en © 2018 Bossi et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Bossi, Francesco Gallucci, Marcello Ricciardelli, Paola How social exclusion modulates social information processing: A behavioural dissociation between facial expressions and gaze direction |
title | How social exclusion modulates social information processing: A behavioural dissociation between facial expressions and gaze direction |
title_full | How social exclusion modulates social information processing: A behavioural dissociation between facial expressions and gaze direction |
title_fullStr | How social exclusion modulates social information processing: A behavioural dissociation between facial expressions and gaze direction |
title_full_unstemmed | How social exclusion modulates social information processing: A behavioural dissociation between facial expressions and gaze direction |
title_short | How social exclusion modulates social information processing: A behavioural dissociation between facial expressions and gaze direction |
title_sort | how social exclusion modulates social information processing: a behavioural dissociation between facial expressions and gaze direction |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5884539/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29617410 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0195100 |
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