The push of social pain: Does rejection’s sting motivate subsequent social reconnection?

David S. Chester; C. Nathan DeWall; Richard S. Pond

doi:10.3758/s13415-016-0412-9

The push of social pain: Does rejection’s sting motivate subsequent social reconnection?

David S. Chester, C. Nathan DeWall, Richard S. Pond

Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

31 Scopus citations

Abstract

Physical pain motivates the healing of somatic injuries, yet it remains unknown whether social pain serves a similarly reparative function toward social injuries. Given the substantial overlap between physical and social pain, we predicted that social pain would mediate the effect of rejection on greater motivation for social reconnection and affiliative behavior toward rejecters. In Study 1, the effect of rejection on an increased need to belong was mediated by reports of more intense social pain. In Study 2, three neural signatures of social pain (i.e., activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, left and right anterior insula during social rejection), each predicted greater behavioral proximity to rejecters. Our findings reify the overlap between social and physical pain. Furthermore, these results are some of the first to demonstrate the reparative nature of social pain and lend insight into how this process may be harnessed to promote postrejection reconnection.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	541-550
Number of pages	10
Journal	Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience
Volume	16
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-016-0412-9
State	Published - Jun 1 2016

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We are sincerely grateful to Naomi Eisenberger for her assistance with earlier iterations of this manuscript, for providing Study 2’s Cyberball task, and guidance throughout this project. This experiment was funded by grants to the second author from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Grant number: DA005312) and the National Science Foundation (Grant number: BCS1104118).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016, Psychonomic Society, Inc.

Keywords

Affiliation
Reconnection
Social pain
Social rejection

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Cognitive Neuroscience
Behavioral Neuroscience

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10.3758/s13415-016-0412-9

Cite this

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abstract = "Physical pain motivates the healing of somatic injuries, yet it remains unknown whether social pain serves a similarly reparative function toward social injuries. Given the substantial overlap between physical and social pain, we predicted that social pain would mediate the effect of rejection on greater motivation for social reconnection and affiliative behavior toward rejecters. In Study 1, the effect of rejection on an increased need to belong was mediated by reports of more intense social pain. In Study 2, three neural signatures of social pain (i.e., activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, left and right anterior insula during social rejection), each predicted greater behavioral proximity to rejecters. Our findings reify the overlap between social and physical pain. Furthermore, these results are some of the first to demonstrate the reparative nature of social pain and lend insight into how this process may be harnessed to promote postrejection reconnection.",

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The push of social pain: Does rejection’s sting motivate subsequent social reconnection?

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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