Social media platforms archive the content and flow of social exchange across communication networks. This may present challenges for individuals because using these platforms increases the probability of observing exchanges among their friends in which they were unintentionally excluded. This study randomly assigned 194 participants to conditions where they were presented with written scenarios describing hypothetical online conversations between their close friends in which they were excluded or included. Results suggest that participants in the excluded condition experienced the most negative and least positive emotional responses. Further, participants with the tendency to devote cognitive resources to understanding their social networks—a construct we call network attention—were particularly sensitive to the stimuli. Network attention predicted negative emotional responses in the excluded condition and positive emotional responses in the included condition. Results are discussed in the context of communication and cognition via social media.

References

Badawy, R. L., Stefanone, M. A., Brouer, R. L. ( 2014 ). I’m not just wasting time online! Test of situational awareness: An exploratory study . In Proceedings of the 47th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Systems Science (HICSS-47) , . Grand Wailea, Hawaii . IEEE Computer Society Press . doi:10.1109/HICSS.2014.201

Google Scholar Crossref

Barak, A., Gluck-Ofri, O. ( 2007 ). Degree and reciprocity of self-disclosure in online forums . CyberPsychology & Behavior, 10, 407 – 417 . doi:10.1089/cpb.2006.9938

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline

Baumeister, R. F., DeWall, C. N., Ciarocco, N. J., Twenge, J. M. ( 2005 ). Social exclusion impairs self-regulation . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 589 – 604 . doi:10.1037/0022-3514.88.4.589

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Baumeister, R. F., Leary, M. R. ( 1995 ). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation . Psychological Bulletin, 117, 497 – 529 . doi:10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Baumeister, R. F., Twenge, J. M., Nuss, C. K. ( 2002 ). Effects of social exclusion on cognitive processes: Anticipated aloneness reduces intelligent thought . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 817 – 827 . doi:10.1037/0022-3514.83.4.817

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Benenson, J. F., Markovits, H., Hultgren, B., Nguyen, T., Bullock, G., Wrangham, R. ( 2013 ). Social exclusion: More important to human females than males . PLoS One, 8, e55851 . doi:10.10.1371/journal.pone.0055851

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline

Bevan, J. L., Pfyl, J., Barclay, B. ( 2012 ). Negative emotional and cognitive responses to being unfriended on Facebook: An exploratory study . Computers in Human Behavior, 28, 1458 – 1464 . doi:10.1016/j.chb.2012.03.008

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Blackhart, G. C., Eckel, L. A., Tice, D. M. ( 2007 ). Salivary cortisol in response to acute social rejection and acceptance by peers . Biological Psychology, 75, 267 – 276 . doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2007.03.005

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Blackhart, G. C., Nelson, B. C., Knowles, M. L., Baumeister, R. F. ( 2009 ). Rejection elicits emotional reactions but neither causes immediate distress nor lowers self-esteem: A meta-analytic review of 192 studies on social exclusion . Personality and Social Psychology Review, 13, 269 – 309 . doi:10.1177/1088868309346065

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Boneva, B., Kraut, R. ( 2002 ). Email, gender, and personal relationships . In Wellman, B., Haythornthwaite, C. (Eds.), The Internet in everyday life (pp. 372 – 403 ). Malden, MA : Blackwell .

Google Scholar Crossref

Buss, D. M., Kenrick, D. T. ( 1998 ). Evolutionary social psychology . In Gilbert, D. T., Fiske, S. T., Lindzey, G. (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (pp. 982 – 1026 ). New York, NY : McGraw-Hill .

Google Scholar

Canary, D. J., Hause, K. S. ( 1993 ). Is there any reason to research sex differences in communication? Communication Quarterly, 41, 129 – 144 . doi:10.1080/01463379309369874

Google Scholar Crossref

DeWall, C. N., Baumeister, R. F. ( 2006 ). Alone but feeling no pain: Effects of social exclusion on physical pain tolerance and pain threshold, affective forecasting, and interpersonal empathy . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 1 – 15 . doi:10.1037/0022-3514.91.1.1

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Eisenberger, N. I., Lieberman, M. D., Williams, K. D. ( 2003 ). Does rejection hurt? An fMRI study of social exclusion . Science, 302, 290 – 292 . doi:10.1126/science.1089134

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Gardner, W. L., Pickett, C. L., Brewer, M. B. ( 2000 ). Social exclusion and selective memory: How the need to belong influences memory for social events . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 486 – 496 . doi:10.1177/0146167200266007

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Gardner, W. L., Pickett, C. L., Jefferis, V., Knowles, M. ( 2005 ). On the outside looking in: Loneliness and social monitoring . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 1549 – 1560 . doi:10.1177/0146167205277208

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Gonsalkorale, K., Williams, K. D. ( 2007 ). The KKK won’t let me play: Ostracism even by a despised outgroup hurts . European Journal of Social Psychology, 37, 1176 – 1186 . doi:10.1002/ejsp.392

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Greenwood, S., Perrin, A., Duggan, M. ( 2016 ). Social media update 2016. Pew Internet and American Life Project. Retrieved January 3, 2018, from http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/11/11/social-media-update-2016/

Google Scholar

Greitemeyer, T., Mugge, D. O., Bollermann, I. ( 2014 ). Having responsive Facebook friends affects the satisfaction of psychological needs more than having many Facebook friends . Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 36, 252 – 258 . doi:10.1080/01973533.2014.900619

Google Scholar Crossref

Hartgerink, C. H., Van Beest, I., Wicherts, J. M., Williams, K. D. ( 2015 ). The ordinal effects of ostracism: A meta-analysis of 120 Cyberball studies . PLoS One, 10, e0127002 . doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0127002

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Hegtvedt, K. A. ( 1990 ). The effects of relationship strucutre on emotional responses to inequity . Social Psychology Quarterly, 214 – 228 . doi: 10.2307/2786960

Google Scholar Crossref

Jang, C., Stefanone, M. A. ( 2011 ). Non-directed self-disclosure in the blogosphere . Information, Community & Society, 14, 1039 – 1059 . doi:10.1080/1369118x.559265

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Kreuter, M. W., Wray, R. J. ( 2003 ). Tailored and targeted health communication: Strategies for enhancing information relevance . American Journal of Health Behavior, 27, S227 – S232 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Leary, M. R., Cottrell, C. A. ( 2013 ). Evolutionary perspectives on interpersonal acceptance and rejection . In DeWall, C. N. (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of social exclusion (pp. 9 – 19 ). New York, NY : Oxford University Press .

Google Scholar Crossref

Markovits, H., Benenson, J., Dolenszky, E. ( 2001 ). Evidence that children and adolescents have internal models of peer interactions that are gender differentiated . Child Development, 72, 879 – 886 . doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00321

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Mendes, W. B., Major, B., McCoy, S., Blascovich, J. ( 2008 ). How attributional ambiguity shapes physiological and emotional responses to social rejection and acceptance . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 278 – 291 . doi:10.1037/0022-3514.94.2.278

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Murray, S. L., Derrick, J. L., Leder, S., Holmes, J. G. ( 2008 ). Balancing connectedness and self-protection goals in close relationships: A levels-of-processing perspective on risk regulation . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 429 – 459 . doi:10.1037/0022-3514.94.3.429

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Petty, R. E., Cacioppo, J. T. ( 1981 ). Issue involvement as a moderator of the effects on attitude of advertising content and context . Advances in Consumer Research, 8, 20 – 24 .

Google Scholar

Petty, R. E., Cacioppo, J. T., Schumann, D. ( 1983 ). Central and peripheral routes to advertising effectiveness: The moderating role of involvement . Journal of Consumer Research, 135 – 146 . doi:10.1086/208954

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Petty, R. E., Priester, J. R., Brinol, P. ( 2009 ). Mass media and attitude change: Implications of the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion . In Bryant, J., Oliver, M. B. (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research ( 3rd ed ., pp. 155 – 198 ). New York, NY : Routledge .

Google Scholar

Pickett, C. L., Gardner, W. L., Knowles, M. ( 2004 ). Getting a cue: The need to belong and enhanced sensitivity to social cues . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 1095 – 1107 . doi:10.1177/0146167203262085

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Sagioglou, C., Greitemeyer, T. ( 2014 ). Facebook’s emotional consequences: Why Facebook causes a decrease in mood and why people still use it . Computers in Human Behavior, 35, 359 – 363 . doi:10.1016/j.chb.2014.03.003

Google Scholar Crossref

Schneider, F. M., Zwillich, B., Bindl, M. J., Hopp, F. R., Reich, S., Vorderer, P. ( 2017 ). Social media ostracism: The effects of being excluded online . Computers in Human Behavior, 73, 385 – 393 . doi:10.1016/j.chb.2017.03.052

Google Scholar Crossref

Stefanone, M. A., Iacobucci, A., Svetieva, E. ( 2016 ). Developing the network awareness construct: Evidence supporting the ability to understand novel social situations . In the Proceedings of the 49th Annual Hawai’i International Conference on Systems Sciences (HICSS) . doi:10.1109/HICSS.2016.256

Google Scholar Crossref

Smith, A., Williams, K. D. ( 2004 ). RU there? Ostracism by cell phone text messages . Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 8, 291 – 301 . doi:10.1037/1089-2699.8.4.291

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Stefanone, M. A., Lackaff, D., Rosen, D. ( 2011 ). Contingencies of self-worth and social-networking-site behavior . Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 14, 41 – 49 . doi:10.1089/cyber.2010.0049

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Twenge, J. M., Baumeister, R. F., Tice, D. M., Stucke, T. S. ( 2001 ). If you can’t join them, beat them: Effects of social exclusion on aggressive behavior . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 1058 . doi:10.1037//0022-3514.81.6.1058

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

van Beest, I., Williams, K. D. ( 2006 ). When inclusion costs and ostracism pays, ostracism still hurts . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 918 – 928 . doi:10.1037/0022-3514.91.5.918

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Van Orden, K. A., Witte, T. K., Cukrowicz, K. C., Braithwaite, S. R., Selby, E. A., Joiner, T. E.. ( 2010 ). The interpersonal theory of suicide . Psychological Review, 117, 575 – 600 . doi:10.1037/a0018697

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Walther, J. B. ( 2017 ). The merger of mass and interpersonal communication via new media: Integrating metaconstructs . Human Communication Research, 43, 559 – 572 . doi:10.1111/hcre.12122

Google Scholar Crossref

Williams, K. D., Cheung, C. K., Choi, W. ( 2000 ). Cyberostracism: Effects of being ignored over the Internet . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 748 . doi:10.1037/0022-3514.79.5.748

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Williams, K. D., Sommer, K. L. ( 1997 ). Social ostracism by coworkers: Does rejection lead to loafing or compensation? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 693 – 706 . doi:10.1177/0146167297237003

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Williams, K. D., Zadro, L. ( 2005 ). Ostracism: The indiscriminate early detection system . In Williams, K.D., Forgas, J. P., von Hippel, W. (Eds.), Sydney symposium of social psychology series. The social outcast: Ostracism, social exclusion, rejection, and bullying (pp. 19 – 34 ). New York, NY : Psychology Press .

Google Scholar