Target and Non-Target Processing during Oddball and Cyberball: A Comparative Event-Related Potential Study

The phenomenon of social exclusion can be investigated by using a virtual ball-tossing game called Cyberball. In neuroimaging studies, structures have been identified which are activated during social exclusion. But to date the underlying mechanisms are not fully disclosed. In previous electrophysiological studies it was shown that the P3 complex is sensitive to exclusion manipulations in the Cyberball paradigm and that there is a correlation between P3 amplitude and self-reported social pain. Since this posterior event-related potential (ERP) was widely investigated using the oddball paradigm, we directly compared the ERP effects elicited by the target (Cyberball: “ball possession”) and non-target (Cyberball: “ball possession of a co-player) events in both paradigms. Analyses mainly focused on the effect of altered stimulus probabilities of the target and non-target events between two consecutive blocks of the tasks. In the first block, the probability of the target and non-target event was 33% (Cyberball: inclusion), in the second block target probability was reduced to 17%, and accordingly, non-target probability was increased to 66% (Cyberball: exclusion). Our results indicate that ERP amplitude differences between inclusion and exclusion are comparable to ERP amplitude effects in a visual oddball task. We therefore suggest that ERP effects–especially in the P3 range–in the Oddball and Cyberball paradigm rely on similar mechanisms, namely the probability of target and non-target events. Since the simulation of social exclusion (Cyberball) did not trigger a unique ERP response, the idea of an exclusion-specific neural alarm system is not supported. The limitations of an ERP-based approach will be discussed.     

Effects of Pre-Experience of Social Exclusion on Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis and Catecholaminergic Responsiveness to Public Speaking Stress

Backround

Being socially excluded is associated with a variety of psychological changes and with an increased risk of disease. Today, the immediate physiological consequences of being socially excluded are not well understood. In two recent studies employing a standardized exclusion paradigm (Cyberball) we found social exclusion in this virtual game did not alter cortisol secretion directly. However, exclusion pre-experience suppresses the normal cortisol response to public speaking stress in women. The present study aims to replicate our previous finding and further elucidate it by analyzing for the first time whether this alteration of cortisol-responsiveness is associated to ACTH and whether the catecholaminergic system is affected as well.

Methods

Women were randomly assigned to Cyberball-induced exclusion (SE, n = 22) or inclusion (SI, n = 21), respectively. Immediately afterwards they were subjected to public speaking stress. Salivary cortisol, plasma ACTH, catecholamines and estradiol were assessed as were psychological distress and mood.

Results

Cyberball exclusion led to a highly significant immediate increase in negative affect in excluded women. After public speaking negative affect in included women increased as well and groups no longer differed. We replicate our previous finding of cortisol non-responsiveness to public speaking stress after exclusion pre-experience and find this effect to be significantly correlated with ACTH alterations. No such effects are observed for catecholamines.

Conclusions

We replicated our previous study result of a supressed cortisol stress response after a short exclusion experience via Cyberball, thereby underlining the profound effects of social exclusion on a subsequent cortisol stress response. This further demonstrates that these alterations are associated with ACTH. Lack of effects on catecholamines is discussed in view of the tend-and-befriend hypothesis but also from a methodological perspective.     

Virtual bargaining: a theory of social decision-making

An essential element of goal-directed decision-making in social contexts is that agents'' actions may be mutually interdependent. However, the most well-developed approaches to such strategic interactions, based on the Nash equilibrium concept in game theory, are sometimes too broad and at other times ‘overlook’ good solutions to fundamental social dilemmas and coordination problems. The authors propose a new theory of social decision-making—virtual bargaining—in which individuals decide among a set of moves on the basis of what they would agree to do if they could openly bargain. The core principles of a formal account are outlined (vis-à-vis the notions of ‘feasible agreement’ and explicit negotiation) and further illustrated with the introduction of a new game, dubbed the ‘Boobytrap game’ (a modification on the canonical Prisoner''s Dilemma paradigm). In the first empirical data of how individuals play the Boobytrap game, participants'' experimental choices accord well with a virtual bargaining perspective, but do not match predictions from a standard Nash account. Alternative frameworks are discussed, with specific empirical tests between these and virtual bargaining identified as future research directions. Lastly, it is proposed that virtual bargaining underpins a vast range of human activities, from social decision-making to joint action and communication.     

Childhood Emotional Maltreatment Severity Is Associated with Dorsal Medial Prefrontal Cortex Responsivity to Social Exclusion in Young Adults

Children who have experienced chronic parental rejection and exclusion during childhood, as is the case in childhood emotional maltreatment, may become especially sensitive to social exclusion. This study investigated the neural and emotional responses to social exclusion (with the Cyberball task) in young adults reporting childhood emotional maltreatment. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated brain responses and self-reported distress to social exclusion in 46 young adult patients and healthy controls (mean age = 19.2±2.16) reporting low to extreme childhood emotional maltreatment. Consistent with prior studies, social exclusion was associated with activity in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex. In addition, severity of childhood emotional maltreatment was positively associated with increased dorsal medial prefrontal cortex responsivity to social exclusion. The dorsal medial prefrontal cortex plays a crucial role in self-and other-referential processing, suggesting that the more individuals have been rejected and maltreated in childhood, the more self- and other- processing is elicited by social exclusion in adulthood. Negative self-referential thinking, in itself, enhances cognitive vulnerability for the development of psychiatric disorders. Therefore, our findings may underlie the emotional and behavioural difficulties that have been reported in adults reporting childhood emotional maltreatment.     

Social rejection,exclusion, and shunning among the Gombe chimpanzees

From the observations at Gombe over the past 23 years it appears that group punishment of deviant behavior through ostracism, as practiced in human groups, has not yet evolved in a truly sophisticated way in chimpanzee society. However, cases of “social rejection or exclusion” have been observed in three different behavioral contexts. Most frequently, a chimpanzee is the target of hostility as the result of competitive interaction within the community; in such cases, social cohesion counterbalances rejection, typically leading to integration within a relatively stable pattern of dominance and social interaction. The occasional departure of an individual who has been the target of aggression —like the withdrawal of Evered after repeated attacks by Figan and Faban—seems due to persistent hostility by a few males rather than general “ostracism” by the group as a whole. A second form of exclusion concerns outsiders found in the home range of the group: in these cases, hostility is more generalized, particularly in response to the attempt of an adult female with offspring to join the community. Finally, there are the rarely observed instances of shunning a group member whose behavior seems abnormal the social rejection of Pepe and Old Mr. McGregor after they suffered from polio.     

The Ordinal Effects of Ostracism: A Meta-Analysis of 120 Cyberball Studies

We examined 120 Cyberball studies (N = 11,869) to determine the effect size of ostracism and conditions under which the effect may be reversed, eliminated, or small. Our analyses showed that (1) the average ostracism effect is large (d > |1.4|) and (2) generalizes across structural aspects (number of players, ostracism duration, number of tosses, type of needs scale), sampling aspects (gender, age, country), and types of dependent measure (interpersonal, intrapersonal, fundamental needs). Further, we test Williams’s (2009) proposition that the immediate impact of ostracism is resistant to moderation, but that moderation is more likely to be observed in delayed measures. Our findings suggest that (3) both first and last measures are susceptible to moderation and (4) time passed since being ostracized does not predict effect sizes of the last measure. Thus, support for this proposition is tenuous and we suggest modifications to the temporal need-threat model of ostracism.     

Pre-experience of social exclusion suppresses cortisol response to psychosocial stress in women but not in men

Lack of social support and social exclusion is associated with adverse effects for mental and physical health. Additionally, women appear to be more vulnerable to social triggers of health disturbances. The hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenocortical-axis (HPA axis) might play a key role in this context as it has been shown both to relate to psychosocial conditions and health outcomes and to respond differentially depending on gender. In a previous experiment we found no effects of exclusion alone (operationalized via Cyberball) on cortisol secretion. Here we examine the effects of a social exclusion pre-experience on psychological and cortisol responses to a public speaking stressor. Subjects (33 m, 34 f) were randomly assigned to social exclusion (SE) or one of two control conditions (exclusion attributed to technical default (TD) and social inclusion (SI)). Afterwards salivary cortisol and psychological responses to a public speaking paradigm were assessed. Exclusion pre-treatment does not affect psychological responses to public speaking stress though with respect to cortisol significant. Cyberball by gender and Cyberball by gender by time interactions are found. SE-women show a blunted cortisol stress response to public speaking while cortisol responses of SE-men fall between SI-men and TD-men. Pre-experience of social exclusion leads to a blunted cortisol response to stress in women but not in men. This factor might contribute to the higher vulnerability to social triggers of health disturbances observed in women.     

Pain Processing after Social Exclusion and Its Relation to Rejection Sensitivity in Borderline Personality Disorder

Objective

There is a general agreement that physical pain serves as an alarm signal for the prevention of and reaction to physical harm. It has recently been hypothesized that “social pain,” as induced by social rejection or abandonment, may rely on comparable, phylogenetically old brain structures. As plausible as this theory may sound, scientific evidence for this idea is sparse. This study therefore attempts to link both types of pain directly. We studied patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) because BPD is characterized by opposing alterations in physical and social pain; hyposensitivity to physical pain is associated with hypersensitivity to social pain, as indicated by an enhanced rejection sensitivity.

Method

Twenty unmedicated female BPD patients and 20 healthy participants (HC, matched for age and education) played a virtual ball-tossing game (cyberball), with the conditions for exclusion, inclusion, and a control condition with predefined game rules. Each cyberball block was followed by a temperature stimulus (with a subjective pain intensity of 60% in half the cases). The cerebral responses were measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging. The Adult Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire was used to assess rejection sensitivity.

Results

Higher temperature heat stimuli had to be applied to BPD patients relative to HCs to reach a comparable subjective experience of painfulness in both groups, which suggested a general hyposensitivity to pain in BPD patients. Social exclusion led to a subjectively reported hypersensitivity to physical pain in both groups that was accompanied by an enhanced activation in the anterior insula and the thalamus. In BPD, physical pain processing after exclusion was additionally linked to enhanced posterior insula activation. After inclusion, BPD patients showed reduced amygdala activation during pain in comparison with HC. In BPD patients, higher rejection sensitivity was associated with lower activation differences during pain processing following social exclusion and inclusion in the insula and in the amygdala.

Discussion

Despite the similar behavioral effects in both groups, BPD patients differed from HC in their neural processing of physical pain depending on the preceding social situation. Rejection sensitivity further modulated the impact of social exclusion on neural pain processing in BPD, but not in healthy controls.     

The Relationship between Trait Emotional Intelligence and Interaction with Ostracized Others' Retaliation

Background

Regulation of emotions in others is distinct from other activities related to trait emotional intelligence in that only such behavior can directly change other people''s psychological states. Although emotional intelligence has generally been associated with prosociality, emotionally intelligent people may manipulate others'' behaviors to suit their own interests using high-level capabilities to read and manage the emotions of others. This study investigated how trait emotional intelligence was related to interacting with ostracized others who attempt retaliation.

Method

We experimentally manipulated whether two people were simultaneously ostracized or not by using an online ball-tossing game called Cyberball. Eighty university students participated in Cyberball for manipulating ostracism and a “recommendation game,” a variation of the ultimatum game for assessing how to interact with others who attempt retaliation, with four participants. After the recommendation game, participants rated their intention to retaliate during the game.

Results

People with higher interpersonal emotional intelligence were more likely to recommend that the ostracized other should inhibit retaliation and maximize additional rewards when they have a weaker intention to retaliate. However, they were more likely to recommend that the ostracized other should retaliate against the ostracizers when they have a stronger intention to retaliate.

Conclusion

This is the first laboratory study that empirically reveals that people with high interpersonal emotional intelligence influence others'' emotions based on their own goals contrary to the general view. Trait emotional intelligence itself is neither positive nor negative, but it can facilitate interpersonal behaviors for achieving goals. Our study offers valuable contributions for the refinement of the trait emotional intelligence concept in the respect of its social function.     

Pre-experience of social exclusion suppresses cortisol response to psychosocial stress in women but not in men

Lack of social support and social exclusion is associated with adverse effects for mental and physical health. Additionally, women appear to be more vulnerable to social triggers of health disturbances. The hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenocortical-axis (HPA axis) might play a key role in this context as it has been shown both to relate to psychosocial conditions and health outcomes and to respond differentially depending on gender. In a previous experiment we found no effects of exclusion alone (operationalized via Cyberball) on cortisol secretion. Here we examine the effects of a social exclusion pre-experience on psychological and cortisol responses to a public speaking stressor. Subjects (33 m, 34 f) were randomly assigned to social exclusion (SE) or one of two control conditions (exclusion attributed to technical default (TD) and social inclusion (SI)). Afterwards salivary cortisol and psychological responses to a public speaking paradigm were assessed. Exclusion pre-treatment does not affect psychological responses to public speaking stress though with respect to cortisol significant. Cyberball by gender and Cyberball by gender by time interactions are found. SE-women show a blunted cortisol stress response to public speaking while cortisol responses of SE-men fall between SI-men and TD-men. Pre-experience of social exclusion leads to a blunted cortisol response to stress in women but not in men. This factor might contribute to the higher vulnerability to social triggers of health disturbances observed in women.     

The Effect of Ostracism and Optional Participation on the Evolution of Cooperation in the Voluntary Public Goods Game

Not only animals, plants and microbes but also humans cooperate in groups. The evolution of cooperation in a group is an evolutionary puzzle, because defectors always obtain a higher benefit than cooperators. When people participate in a group, they evaluate group member’s reputations and then decide whether to participate in it. In some groups, membership is open to all who are willing to participate in the group. In other groups, a candidate is excluded from membership if group members regard the candidate’s reputation as bad. We developed an evolutionary game model and investigated how participation in groups and ostracism influence the evolution of cooperation in groups when group members play the voluntary public goods game, by means of computer simulation. When group membership is open to all candidates and those candidates can decide whether to participate in a group, cooperation cannot be sustainable. However, cooperation is sustainable when a candidate cannot be a member unless all group members admit them to membership. Therefore, it is not participation in a group but rather ostracism, which functions as costless punishment on defectors, that is essential to sustain cooperation in the voluntary public goods game.     

To Punish or to Leave: Distinct Cognitive Processes Underlie Partner Control and Partner Choice Behaviors

When a cooperative partner defects, at least two types of response are available: Punishment, aimed at modifying behavior, and ostracism, aimed at avoiding further social interaction with the partner. These options, termed partner control and partner choice, have been distinguished at behavioral and evolutionary levels. However, little work has compared their cognitive bases. Do these disparate behaviors depend on common processes of moral evaluation? Specifically, we assess whether they show identical patterns of dependence on two key dimensions of moral evaluation: A person’s intentions, and the outcomes that they cause. We address this issue in a “trembling hand” economic game. In this game, an allocator divides a monetary stake between themselves and a responder based on a stochastic mechanism. This allows for dissociations between the allocator’s intent and the actual outcome. Responders were either given the opportunity to punish or reward the allocator (partner control) or to switch to a different partner for a subsequent round of play (partner choice). Our results suggest that partner control and partner choice behaviors are supported by distinct underlying cognitive processes: Partner control exhibits greater sensitivity to the outcomes a partner causes, while partner choice is influenced almost exclusively by a partner’s intentions. This cognitive dissociation can be understood in light of the unique adaptive functions of partner control and partner choice.     

Experimental Evidence on Iterated Reasoning in Games

We present experimental evidence on two forms of iterated reasoning in games, i.e. backward induction and interactive knowledge. Besides reliable estimates of the cognitive skills of the subjects, our design allows us to disentangle two possible explanations for the observed limits in performed iterated reasoning: Restrictions in subjects’ cognitive abilities and their beliefs concerning the rationality of co-players. In comparison to previous literature, our estimates regarding subjects’ skills in iterated reasoning are quite pessimistic. Also, we find that beliefs concerning the rationality of co-players are completely irrelevant in explaining the observed limited amount of iterated reasoning in the dirty faces game. In addition, it is demonstrated that skills in backward induction are a solid predictor for skills in iterated knowledge, which points to some generalized ability of the subjects in iterated reasoning.     

Electrophysiological Indices of Response Inhibition in a Go/NoGo Task Predict Self-Control in a Social Context

Recent research demonstrates that response inhibition—a core executive function—may subserve self-regulation and self-control. However, it is unclear whether response inhibition also predicts self-control in the multifaceted, high-level phenomena of social decision-making. Here we examined whether electrophysiological indices of response inhibition would predict self-control in a social context. Electroencephalography was recorded as participants completed a widely used Go/NoGo task (the cued Continuous Performance Test). Participants then interacted with a partner in an economic exchange game that requires self-control. Results demonstrated that greater NoGo-Anteriorization and larger NoGo-P300 peak amplitudes—two established electrophysiological indices of response inhibition—both predicted more self-control in this social game. These findings support continued integration of executive function and self-regulation and help extend prior research into social decision-making processes.     

Attachment Status Affects Heart Rate Responses to Experimental Ostracism in Inpatients with Depression

Depression is assumed to be both a risk factor for rejection and a result of it, and as such constitutes an important factor in rejection research. Attachment theory has been applied to understand psychological disorders, such as depression, and can explain individual differences in responses to rejection. Research on autonomic nervous system activity to rejection experiences has been contradictory, with opposing strings of argumentation (activating vs. numbing). We investigated autonomic nervous system-mediated peripheral physiological responses (heart rate) to experimentally manipulated ostracism (Cyberball) in 97 depressed patients with organized (n = 52) and disorganized attachment status (n = 45). Controlling for baseline mean heart rate levels, depressed patients with disorganized attachment status responded to ostracism with significantly higher increases in heart rate than depressed patients with organized attachment status (p = .029; ηp² = .051). These results suggest that attachment status may be a useful indicator of autonomic responses to perceived social threat, which in turn may affect the therapeutic process and the patient-therapist relationship.     

Social Value Induction and Cooperation in the Centipede Game

The Centipede game provides a dynamic model of cooperation and competition in repeated dyadic interactions. Two experiments investigated psychological factors driving cooperation in 20 rounds of a Centipede game with significant monetary incentives and anonymous and random re-pairing of players after every round. The main purpose of the research was to determine whether the pattern of strategic choices observed when no specific social value orientation is experimentally induced—the standard condition in all previous investigations of behavior in the Centipede and most other experimental games—is essentially individualistic, the orthodox game-theoretic assumption being that players are individualistically motivated in the absence of any specific motivational induction. Participants in whom no specific state social value orientation was induced exhibited moderately non-cooperative play that differed significantly from the pattern found when an individualistic orientation was induced. In both experiments, the neutral treatment condition, in which no orientation was induced, elicited competitive behavior resembling behavior in the condition in which a competitive orientation was explicitly induced. Trait social value orientation, measured with a questionnaire, influenced cooperation differently depending on the experimentally induced state social value orientation. Cooperative trait social value orientation was a significant predictor of cooperation and, to a lesser degree, experimentally induced competitive orientation was a significant predictor of non-cooperation. The experimental results imply that the standard assumption of individualistic motivation in experimental games may not be valid, and that the results of such investigations need to take into account the possibility that players are competitively motivated.     

fMRI Study of Social Anxiety during Social Ostracism with and without Emotional Support

Social anxiety is characterized by an excessive fear of being embarrassed in social interactions or social performance situations. Emotional support can help to decrease or diminish social distress. Such support may play an important role at different points of social interaction. However, it is unclear how the beneficial effects of social support are represented in the brains of socially anxious individuals. To explore this, we used the same paradigm previously used to examine the effects of emotional support on social pain caused by exclusion. Undergraduates (n = 46) showing a wide range of social anxiety scores underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while participating in a Cyberball game. Participants were initially included and later excluded from the game. In the latter half of the session in which participants were excluded, they were provided with supportive messages. In line with our previous work, we found that social exclusion led to increased anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activity, whereas emotional support led to increased left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activity. Despite validation of the paradigm, social anxiety was not associated with increased ACC activity during social exclusion, or during perceived emotional support. Instead, fear of negative evaluation as assessed by the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation (BFNE) scale showed positive associations with left DLPFC activation while receiving emotional support, compared to while being socially excluded. The more socially anxious an individual was, the greater was the left DLPFC activity increased during receipt of messages. This suggests that highly socially anxious people still have the ability to perceive social support, but that they are nevertheless susceptible to negative evaluation by others.     

Animal analogues of ostracism: Biological mechanisms and social consequences

Utilizing a behavioral-biological perspective, this article examines the functions, causes, and costs of ostracism in nonhuman primates. Among nonhuman primates, ostracism may serve many functions other than promoting the cohesiveness of the group from which an individual is excluded. These functions include range extension, population regulation, outbreeding, and the diffusion of learned traditions. A variety of behavioral and biological processes contribute to the genesis and expression of ostracism. Behaviorally, female choice and the ability to form effective alliances seem to be critical for an adult male monkey to avoid being ostracized. Biologically, the integrity of the frontal lobes and adequate functioning of serotonergic neurotransmitter systems are essential to escape forced exile from the group. There is evidence that indicates that ostracism exacts a substancial physiological cost, including altered immune function, decrements in information processing, and changes in the metabolism of drugs. Moreover, recent studies suggest that several biological indices, including low concentrations of whole blood serotonin, may be markers that can be used to identify individual at risk for ostracism.     

The Effect of Online Violent Video Games on Levels of Aggression

Background

In recent years the video game industry has surpassed both the music and video industries in sales. Currently violent video games are among the most popular video games played by consumers, most specifically First-Person Shooters (FPS). Technological advancements in game play experience including the ability to play online has accounted for this increase in popularity. Previous research, utilising the General Aggression Model (GAM), has identified that violent video games increase levels of aggression. Little is known, however, as to the effect of playing a violent video game online.

Methods/Principal Findings

Participants (N = 101) were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions; neutral video game—offline, neutral video game—online, violent video game—offline and violent video game—online. Following this they completed questionnaires to assess their attitudes towards the game and engaged in a chilli sauce paradigm to measure behavioural aggression. The results identified that participants who played a violent video game exhibited more aggression than those who played a neutral video game. Furthermore, this main effect was not particularly pronounced when the game was played online.

Conclusions/Significance

These findings suggest that both playing violent video games online and offline compared to playing neutral video games increases aggression.