Niedeggen Michael, Kerschreiter Rudolf, Hirte Diane, Weschke Sarah
Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, D-14195, Berlin, Germany.
Psychon Bull Rev. 2017 Apr;24(2):574-581. doi: 10.3758/s13423-016-1115-5.
Previous research suggests that the established link of vertical position and self-assignment of social power affects the processing of social exclusion. We hypothesized that verticality-induced self-assignment of social power moderates the evaluation of exclusion via a change in subjective expectancy of social participation. Following this idea, a superior position-associated with higher power-was supposed to increase the sensitivity for a transition to social exclusion. The transition was simulated in a virtual ball tossing game (cyberball): an inclusionary block was followed by partial exclusion of the participant. The participants' vertical position relative to the co-players was varied in three experimental groups (superior vs. even vs. inferior). From inclusion to partial exclusion, we observed an increase of an event-related brain potential related to the violation of subjective expectancy (P3), and participants reported a corresponding increase in threat to social needs and negative mood. For participants at inferior position exclusionary effects on both, P3 and need threat, were less pronounced as compared to participants at even or superior position. These results indicate that verticality impacts basic cognitive processes of subjective expectancy formation. An inferior position already provides a bias for the loss of social power, and the transition to social exclusion is less unexpected.
先前的研究表明，垂直位置与社会权力自我赋予之间已确立的联系会影响社会排斥的处理过程。我们假设，垂直性引发的社会权力自我赋予会通过改变社会参与的主观预期来调节对排斥的评价。按照这一想法，与更高权力相关的优越地位应该会增加对向社会排斥转变的敏感性。这种转变在一个虚拟抛球游戏（网络球）中进行模拟：先是一段被接纳的阶段，随后参与者被部分排斥。在三个实验组中（优越组与平等组与劣势组），参与者相对于共同玩家的垂直位置有所不同。从被接纳到部分被排斥，我们观察到与违反主观预期相关的事件相关脑电位（P3）增加，并且参与者报告称对社会需求的威胁和负面情绪相应增加。与处于平等或优越位置的参与者相比，处于劣势位置的参与者在P3和需求威胁方面的排斥效应不那么明显。这些结果表明，垂直性会影响主观预期形成的基本认知过程。劣势地位已经为社会权力的丧失提供了一种偏向，并且向社会排斥的转变不那么出乎意料。
