Research article
Upright and left out: Posture moderates the effects of social exclusion on mood and threats to basic needs
Keith M. Welker,
David E. Oberleitner,
Samantha Cain, Justin M. Carré,
Corresponding Author
Keith M. Welker
Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA
Correspondence to: Keith M. Welker, Department of Psychology, Wayne State University, 5057 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, MI 48202, USA.
E-mail: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorDavid E. Oberleitner
University of Bridgeport, Bridgeport, CT, USA
Search for more papers by this authorKeith M. Welker,
David E. Oberleitner,
Samantha Cain, Justin M. Carré,
Corresponding Author
Keith M. Welker
Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA
Correspondence to: Keith M. Welker, Department of Psychology, Wayne State University, 5057 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, MI 48202, USA.
E-mail: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorDavid E. Oberleitner
University of Bridgeport, Bridgeport, CT, USA
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
Adopting a powerful posture leads individuals to feel more confident and dominant. Social exclusion can strongly impact individuals' mood and basic social needs. The current research combines these bodies of research, investigating the effects of dominant and submissive poses on responses to social exclusion and inclusion. In two experiments, participants held a slouching or upright pose and were either socially included or excluded using the Cyberball social exclusion manipulation. Social exclusion only affected participants' mood when individuals took a powerful posture: Excluded participants in powerful postures had more negative mood after exclusion than included power-posing participants, but effects of exclusion and inclusion did not differ among submissive-posing participants (Experiments 1 and 2). Similarly, it was also found that social exclusion affected basic needs only when participants' adopted powerful poses (Experiment 2). Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
REFERENCES
- Barsalou, L. W. (2008). Grounded cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 617–645.
- Barsalou, L. W., Niedenthal, P. M., Barbey, A. K., & Ruppert, J. A. (2003). Social embodiment. In B. H. Ross (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory (Vol. 43, pp. 43–92). New York, NY: Elsevier Science.
- Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117(3), 497–529. DOI: 10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497
- Bernstein, M. J., Sacco, D. F., Young, S. G., Hugenberg, K., & Cook, E. (2010). With the in-crowd: The effects of social exclusion and inclusion are enhanced by the perceived essentialism of ingroups and outgroups. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36, 999–1009. DOI: 10.1177/0146167210376059
- Bernstein, M. J., & Claypool, H. M. (2012a). Not all social exclusions are created equal: Emotional distress following social exclusion is moderated by exclusion paradigm. Social Influence, 7(2), 113–130. DOI: 10.1080/15534510.2012.664326
- Bernstein, M. J., & Claypool, H. M. (2012b). Social exclusion and pain sensitivity: Why exclusion sometimes hurts and sometimes numbs. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38(2), 185–196. DOI: 10.1177/0146167211422449
- Bohns, V. K., & Wiltermuth, S. S. (2012). It hurts when I do this (or you do that): Posture and pain tolerance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(1), 341–345. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2011.05.022
- Bozin, M. A., & Yoder, J. D. (2008). Social status, not gender alone, is implicated in different reactions by women and men to social ostracism. Sex Roles, 58(9–10), 713–720. DOI: 10.1007/s11199-007-9383-1
- Briñol, P., & Petty, R. E. (2008). Embodied persuasion: Fundamental processes by which bodily responses can impact attitudes. In G. R. Semin, & E. R. Smith (Eds.), Embodied grounding: Social, cognitive, affective, and neuroscientific approaches (pp. 184–207). New York, NY US: Cambridge University Press.
- Briñol, P., Petty, R. E., & Wagner, B. (2009). Body posture effects on self-evaluation: A self-validation approach. European Journal of Social Psychology, 39(6), 1053–1064. DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.607
- Carney, D. R., Cuddy, A. J. C., & Yap, A. J. (2010). Power posing: Brief nonverbal displays affect neuroendocrine levels and risk tolerance. Psychological Science, 21(10), 1363–1368. DOI: 10.1177/0956797610383437
- Carré, J. M., McCormick, C. M., & Hariri, A. R. (2011). The social neuroendocrinology of human aggression. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 36(7), 935–944. DOI: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2011.02.001
- Cashdan, E. (1998). Smiles, speech, and body posture: How women and men display sociometric status and power. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 22(4), 209–228.
- Chandler, J., & Schwarz, N. (2009). How extending your middle finger affects your perception of others: Learned movements influence concept accessibility. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(1), 123–128. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2008.06.012
- Eisenegger, C., Haushofer, J., & Fehr, E. (2011). The role of testosterone in social interaction. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15(6), 263–271. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2011.04.008
- Eisenberger, N. I., Lieberman, M. D., & Williams, K. D. (2003). Does rejection hurt? An fMRI study of social exclusion. Science, 302(5643), 290–292. DOI: 10.1126/science.1089134
- Geniole, S. N., Carré, J. M., & McCormick, C. M. (2011). State, not trait, neuroendocrine function predicts costly reactive aggression in men after social exclusion and inclusion. Biological Psychology, 87(1), 137–145. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2011.02.020
- Goldman, A., & de Vignemont, F. (2009). Is social cognition embodied? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13(4), 154–159. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2009.01.007
- Guinote, A. (2007). Behaviour variability and the situated focus theory of power. In W. Stroebe, & M. Hewstone (Eds.), European review of social psychology. NewYork: Wiley.
- Gunnar, M. R., Sebanc, A. M., Tout, K., Donzella, B., van Dulmen, M. M. H. (2003). Peer rejection, temperament, and cortisol activity in preschoolers. Developmental Psychobiology, 43, 436–468. DOI: 10.1002/dev.10144
- Huang, L., Galinsky, A. D., Gruenfeld, D. H., & Guillory, L. E. (2011). Powerful postures vs. powerful roles: Which is the proximate correlate of thought and behavior? Psychological Science, 22, 95–102. DOI: 10.1177/0956797610391912
- Josephs, R. A., Sellers, J. G., Newman, M. L., & Mehta, P. H. (2006). The mismatch effect: When testosterone and status are at odds. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(6), 999–1013. DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.90.6.999
- Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1999). Philosophy in the flesh: The embodied mind and its challenge to Western thought. New York: Basic Books.
- Leary, M. R. (2010). Affiliation, acceptance, and belonging. In S. T. Fiske, D. T. Gilbert, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology ( 5th edn, Vol. 2, pp. 864–897). New York, NY: Wiley.
- Maner, J. K., DeWall, C. N., Baumeister, R. F., & Schaller, M. (2007). Does social exclusion motivate interpersonal reconnection? Resolving the ‘porcupine problem’. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(1), 42–55. DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.92.1.42
- Mazur, A., & Booth, A. (1998). Testosterone and dominance in men. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 21, 353–397. DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X98001228
- Mehta, P. H., & Josephs, R. A. (2010). Testosterone and cortisol jointly regulate dominance: Evidence for a dual-hormone hypothesis. Hormones and Behavior, 58, 898–906. DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2010.08.020
- Niedenthal, P. M., Barsalou, L. W., Winkielman, P., Krauth-Gruber, S., & Ric, F. (2005). Embodiment in attitudes, social perception, and emotion. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 9(3), 184–211. DOI: 10.1207/s15327957pspr0903_1
- Nowak, K. L., & Rauh, C. (2006). The influence of the avatar on online perceptions of anthropomorphism, androgyny, credibility, homophily, and attraction. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(1), 153–178. DOI: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2006.tb00308.x
- Onoda, K., Okamoto, Y., Nakashima, K., Nittono, H., Yoshimura, S., … Ura, M. (2010). Does low self-esteem enhance social pain? The relationship between trait self-esteem and anterior cingulate cortex activation induced by ostracism. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 5(4), 385–391. DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsq002
- Slepian, M. L., Young, S. G., Rule, N. O., Weisbuch, M., & Ambadi, N. (2012). Embodied impression formation: Social judgments and motor cues to approach and avoidance. Social Cognition, 30(2), 232–240.
- Smith, A., & Williams, K. D. (2004). R U there? Effects of ostracism by cell phone messages. Group dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 8, 291–301.
- 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(6), 1058–1069. DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.81.6.1058
- Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, W. K. (2003). ‘Isn't it fun to get the respect that we're going to deserve?’ Narcissism, social rejection, and aggression. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29(2), 261–272. DOI: 10.1177/0146167202239051
-
Twenge, J. M.,
Zhang, L.,
Catanese, K. R.,
Dolan-Pascoe, B.,
Lyche, L. F., &
Baumeister, R. F. (2010). Replenishing connectedness: Reminders of social activity reduce aggression after exclusion. British Journal of Social Psychology, 64(1), 205–224. DOI: 10.1348/014466605X90793
10.1348/014466605X90793 Google Scholar
-
Weisfeld, G. E., &
Beresford, J. M. (1982). Erectness of posture as an indicator of dominance or success in humans. Motivation and Emotion, 6(2), 113–131. DOI: 10.1007/BF00992459
10.1007/BF00992459 Google Scholar
- Wesselmann, E. D., Butler, F. A., Williams, K. D. & Pickett, C. L. (2010). Adding injury to insult: Unexpected rejection leads to more aggressive responses. Aggressive Behavior, 36, 232–237. DOI: 10.1002/ab.20347
- Williams, K. D. (2009). Ostracism: A temporal need-threat model. In M. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology, vol. 41, (pp. 279–314). NY: Academic Press.
- Williams, K. D. (2007). Ostracism. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 425–452. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.psych.58.110405.085641
- Williams, K. D., Cheung, C. K. T., & Choi, W. (2000). Cyberostracism: Effects of being ignored over the Internet. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(5), 748–762. DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.79.5.748
-
Williams, K. D.,
Shore, W. J., &
Grahe, J. E. (1998). The silent treatment: Perceptions of its behaviors and associated feelings. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 1(2), 117–141. DOI: 10.1177/1368430298012002
10.1177/1368430298012002 Google Scholar
- Zadro, L., Williams, K. D., & Richardson, R. (2004). How low can you go? Ostracism by a computer is sufficient to lower self-reported levels of belonging, control, self-esteem, and meaningful existence. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40(4), 560–567. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2003.11.006
