Facebook effects on social distress: Priming with online social networking thoughts can alter the perceived distress due to social exclusion

Computers in Human Behavior 49 (2015) 230–236

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Computers in Human Behavior journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/comphumbeh

Research Report

Facebook effects on social distress: Priming with online social networking thoughts can alter the perceived distress due to social exclusion Wen-Bin Chiou a,⇑, Chun-Chia Lee b, Da-Chi Liao c a b c

Institute of Education, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Republic of China Department of Information Management, Fooyin University, Taiwan, Republic of China Institute of Political Science, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Republic of China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:

Keywords: Cyberball Online social networking Perceived distress Priming Social exclusion

a b s t r a c t Social networking sites (SNS) are extremely popular for providing users with an efficient platform for acquiring social links. We experimentally explored whether priming with SNS would interfere with perceptions of social exclusion experiences. Experiment 1, involving 96 undergraduate Facebook users, demonstrated that priming with SNS was associated with decreased distress experienced in an online virtual ball-tossing game (the exclusionary Cyberball). Felt relatedness mediated the link between SNS primes and reduced social distress. Experiment 2, involving 88 current users of Facebook, showed that thoughts of losing SNS intensified distress caused by social exclusion, suggesting that the loss of SNS appears to signify the loss of a potential source of social reconnection. Moreover, the magnifying effect of SNS’ unavailability on the distress associated with social exclusion was more prominent for heavy users. This research provides the first demonstration that SNS (or the loss thereof) can neutralize (augment) perceived distress related to social exclusion. Our findings indicate that online social networking may more profoundly influence how users experience social exclusion in the information age than previously believed. Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Social interaction appeared to be costly before the Internet became ubiquitous (Bargh & McKenna, 2004). Social networking sites (SNS) such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ are low-cost tools that can promote the creation of social connections by providing a convenient platform that can be accessed at any time (Bargh & McKenna, 2004; Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007). The experience of being ignored, rejected, or excluded is pervasive in human social life. Prior literature suggests that social exclusion may draw attention to resources that could facilitate social connections (DeWall, Maner, & Rouby, 2009; Williams, 2007). If online social networking has become a popular means of establishing and maintaining social connections in the information age (Bargh & McKenna, 2004; Ellison et al., 2007; Haythornthwaite, 2005), will thinking about SNS (i.e., available social connections) interrupt the ⇑ Corresponding author at: Institute of Education, National Sun Yat-sen University, 70 Lien-Hai Rd., Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan, Republic of China. Tel.: +886 7 5252000 5884; fax: +886 7 5250133. E-mail address: [email protected] (W.-B. Chiou). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.02.064 0747-5632/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

perceived distress associated with social exclusion? Determining whether the idea of online social networking is related to the experience of social exclusion is pertinent for understanding how strongly SNS have become a potential source of social connections in contemporary social life. Previous studies have mainly focused on the predictors, correlates, and outcomes of SNS use (e.g., Chou & Edge, 2012; Forest & Wood, 2012; Gangadharbatla, 2008; Gonzales & Hancock, 2011; Wilson, Fornasier, & White, 2010; Wu & Chiou, 2009). However, no study has addressed the extent to which SNS influence the distress of perceived social exclusion. In this study, we report experimental evidence showing the priming effect of online social networking on the experience of social exclusion: priming with SNS can mitigate perceived distress due to social exclusion, and thoughts of losing SNS can increase the distress experienced from social exclusion. The term social capital refers to the resources available to individuals through their social interactions (Lin, 2001; Putnam, 2000). In principle, social capital is embedded in the structure of social networks and the location of individuals within these structures (Burt, 2005). Ellison, Steinfield, and Lampe (2010) proposed that SNS may have social capital implications because they have

W.-B. Chiou et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 49 (2015) 230–236

the potential to reshape social networks and lower the cost of communication. Using survey data from an undergraduate sample from the U.S., Ellison et al. (2007) demonstrated that Facebook use is closely associated with the formation and maintenance of social capital, including bridging (which refers to the informational benefits of a heterogeneous network of weak ties) and bonding (which refers to the emotional benefits from strong ties to close friends and family). Furthermore, Steinfield, Ellison, and Lampe (2008) conducted a longitudinal analysis of panel data from Facebook users and found that Facebook use in year one strongly predicted bridging social capital outcomes in year two. Moreover, they found that self-esteem may operate as a moderator of the relationship between SNS use and social capital. Specifically, participants with lower self-esteem appeared to benefit more from their use of Facebook than did those with higher self-esteem. Additionally, a random web survey of college students (n = 2603) suggested that Facebook use is positively related to life satisfaction, social trust, civic engagement, and political participation, which enhance individuals’ social capital (Valenzuela, Park, & Kee, 2009). These studies indicate that online social networking may play a crucial role in social connection, which influences the formation and maintenance of social capital. The desire to form and maintain social bonds has deep roots in evolutionary history (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Buss, 1990). Ostracism, interpersonal rejection, and other forms of social exclusion appear to be highly aversive (Baumeister & Tice, 1990; Williams, 2007). Exclusion-related experiences have been found to be associated with anxiety, loneliness, jealousy, depression, low self-esteem (e.g., Leary, 1990), decrements in intelligent thought (including IQ and Graduate Record Examination test performance; Baumeister, Twenge, & Nuss, 2002), and reduced immune system functioning (see Cacioppo, Hawkley, & Bernston, 2003, for a related review). These devastating consequences of social exclusion and the importance of social ties to survival (Ainsworth, 1989; Buss, 1990) indicate that coping with social exclusion is an important ability for human beings. The social-reconnection hypothesis (Maner, DeWall, Baumeister, & Schaller, 2007), which stems from theory pertaining to the links among motivation, deprivation, and goal attainment, proposes that when a fundamental human motivation is hampered, humans (like other species) often seek alternative means to satisfy that need. Previous studies have provided support for the reconnection hypothesis. For instances, Williams and Sommer (1997) found that excluded participants made more effort in a subsequent group task, indicating that they were motivated to make themselves appear socially desirable. Williams, Cheung, and Choi (2000) observed that ostracized individuals were more likely than others to show conformity. Gardner, Pickett, and Brewer (2000) showed that participants who had been socially excluded recalled more events related to affiliation, suggesting that social exclusion may increase the attention paid to potential sources of social connection. According to the social reconnection hypothesis (Maner et al., 2007), experiences of social exclusion may serve as signals that social connection needs are not satisfied. Thus, excluded individuals may feel an especially strong desire to form bonds with others to satisfy these needs. Given that SNS can serve as a convenient platform for acquiring social connections, it is reasonable to suppose that when experiencing social exclusion, individuals may be primed to think about SNS as meeting fundamental human needs. A recent study conducted by Lee and Chiou (2013) lends credibility to this hypothesized connection. They employed a modified Stroop task (a color-word naming task) to test reaction times to SNS and non-SNS terms (including general terms and brand names). In principle, individuals who are primed to think about a topic typically show slower reaction times in naming the color of related words (Chiou & Cheng, 2013; Sparrow, Liu, & Wegner, 2011).

231

This is because those words become more accessible to the mind and thereby draw attention away from the font color of testing terms, leading to a longer reaction time (i.e., Stroop interference). The results showed that excluded participants took longer to name the font color of SNS-related words (and SNS brand names) than they did for matched general words (and other global brand names). These findings suggest that social exclusion may prime users with thoughts about SNS. From the perspective of perceptual priming (Bargh, 2006; Dijksterhuis & Bargh, 2001; Schröder & Thagard, 2013) primes can influence human perception by altering the accessibility of prime-related mental content (Loersch & Payne, 2011). For example, Zhou, Vohs, and Baumeister (2009) tested whether thoughts of having money would prime a broad sense of strength or efficacy and thereby blunt the distress of being rejected. In one experiment, participants were given a finger-dexterity task. Those in the money condition counted out 80 $100 bills, whereas participants in the paper condition counted out 80 pieces of paper. These researchers showed that handling money (compared with handling paper) reduced the distress of social exclusion experienced in a computerized ball-tossing game (i.e., the Cyberball game; Eisenberger, Lieberman, & Williams, 2003). Shidlovski and Hassin (2011) primed female participants with a motherhood goal and assessed how disgusted they were in response to being shown mildly disgusting pictures (e.g., babies with runny noses, dirty diapers). They demonstrated that perceived disgust was weaker among participants who had received the motherhood prime than non-primed controls. The social-reconnection hypothesis (Maner et al., 2007) and prior research supporting this notion (e.g., Gardner et al., 2000; Williams et al., 2000; Williams & Sommer, 1997) suggest that social exclusion is associated with the attention paid to potential sources of social connections such as SNS (Lee & Chiou, 2013). Based on recent advancements in priming research, we contend that SNS, as a potential resource for social connection, may prime individuals with a general sense of relatedness, thus leading them to perceive less distress when being socially excluded. This hypothesis is also supported by the active-self account for priming effects (Wheeler, DeMarree, & Petty, 2007), which proposes that an activated relevant self (e.g., felt sense of relatedness in the current context) mediates prime-to-perception effects (e.g., a strong sense of self-efficacy mediates the link between money prime and reduced distress of social exclusion in Zhou et al., 2009; a lowered sense of self-worth mediates the association between incidental use of cheaper, generic products and disadvantageous self-evaluations in Chiou & Chao, 2011). Further, if SNS primes can reduce experienced distress caused by social exclusion, then thoughts of losing SNS, in contrast, may signal the unavailability of a potential source for social reconnections and thereby intensify perceived distress when experiencing social exclusion. Moreover, if thinking about losing SNS may prime elevated distress at social exclusion, then such loss will have an especially strong effect on users with more intense SNS use; SNS loss should make those individuals more vulnerable to socially exclusive experiences. In the current research, we conducted two experiments to test the hypothesis that reminders of SNS altered the impact of social events, especially those involving social exclusion. Experiment 1 examined whether the subliminal prime of SNS was associated with decreased distress experienced in an online virtual ball-tossing game (the Cyberball game; Eisenberger, Lieberman, & Williams, 2003). The first experiment also investigated the mediating role of the sense of felt relatedness in the link between SNS primes and reduced distress at social exclusion. Experiment 2 explored whether thoughts of losing SNS would intensify perceived social distress induced by exclusionary bogus feedback (Baumeister, DeWall, Ciarocco, & Twenge, 2005). We further tested whether

232

W.-B. Chiou et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 49 (2015) 230–236

the priming effect of losing SNS on experienced distress would be more prominent for heavy users. 2. Experiment 1: priming with SNS and decreased distress of social exclusion 2.1. Method 2.1.1. Participants and design The participants were 96 undergraduate Facebook users (40 females, 56 males; mean age = 20.3 years, SD = 1.2 years) in an introductory psychology class at a national university in southern Taiwan. They received course credits in exchange for participation. The priming conditions were manipulated between subjects. Participants were randomly assigned to each of two experimental conditions (SNS prime vs. neutral prime). Each condition involved 48 participants (20 females and 24 males). Sex proportions were identical between conditions. 2.1.2. Procedure Upon arrival, participants were told to help with several unrelated tasks that would be used in future studies. After participants provided consent, they were first instructed to perform a visual vigilance test (a subliminal priming task) following the priming procedure used by Chartrand and Bargh (1996). Participants were told that researchers were interested in the speed and accuracy of their response to visual stimuli and that they should indicate on which side of the screen brief flashes of stimuli appeared. Participants then placed their index fingers on two keys: ‘‘Z’’ and ‘‘/’’ to indicate left and right, respectively. After four practice trials, the actual task, which consisted of sixty trials, began. In the SNSprime condition, the stimulus words were ‘‘Facebook’’ and ‘‘Google+,’’ with the two words each appearing 30 times in random order. These two sites were chosen because they are the two most popular SNS among Taiwanese students (e.g., Dong, Cheng, & Wu, 2014; Lin & Lu, 2011; Lu & Yang, 2014). In the neutral-prime condition, the stimulus words were ‘‘Neutral’’ and ‘‘Background,’’ with the two words each appearing 30 times in random order. Each stimulus word flashed for 80 ms. Prior priming-based research has shown that such briefly flashed stimuli can be processed at an unconscious level, and they influence behavior (e.g., Bargh, Chen, & Burrows, 1996; Fitzsimons, Chartrand, & Fitzsimons, 2008). After the priming task, participants completed a filler questionnaire while the experimenter set up the next task. Besides demographic questions, each participant rated their sense of relatedness, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), on four items (positively worded: ‘‘There are people I can turn to at this moment’’; and ‘‘I feel a bond with other people at this moment’’, and negatively worded: ‘‘I feel isolated from others at this moment’’; and ‘‘I feel lonely at this moment’’; adapted from Sheldon & Gunz, 2009; Pavey, Greitemeyer, & Sparks, 2011; Cronbach’s a = .86 in the current study). Later, following the Cyberball paradigm developed by Eisenberger et al. (2003), all of the participants played Cyberball under the exclusionary condition. Participants were led to a computer and asked to help test an online ball-tossing exercise with two other participants who were purportedly also participants. The Cyberball program was set for 45 throws, with the computer players waiting 0.5–3.0 s before making a throw to heighten the sense that the participant was actually playing with other individuals. Each participant could return the ball to a player by pressing one of two keys (‘‘Z’’: upper left-corner player, ‘‘/’’: upper right-corner player). Via computer programming, the ball was initially tossed equally among the three players. After participants received

the ball five times, they were excluded from the remaining 30 throws. Afterward, participants completed a brief questionnaire (‘‘I felt liked’’; ‘‘I felt rejected’’; ‘‘I felt invisible’’; and ‘‘I felt powerful’’; Eisenberger et al., 2003) that assessed perceived social distress on a 5-point scale, ranging from 0 (not at all) to 4 (very much). Responses were averaged to yield an index of social distress (Cronbach’s a = .87 in the current study). At the end of this experiment, participants estimated the number of throws they had received as a manipulation check. Each participant was asked to complete a funnel debriefing form that probed for awareness or suspicion concerning our priming manipulation. Participants were asked (a) what they thought the purpose of the experiment had been and (b) whether they thought any of the different tasks had been related. None of the participants accurately described the purpose of the experiment or how the testing tasks and the social exclusion measure were related.

2.2. Results and discussion The mean reaction time (RT) in the vigilance test was used to check whether equivalent groups were actually achieved by random assignment. There were no significant differences in the mean RT between the two study groups (MSNS = 9012.93 s, SD = 255.76; Mneutral = 853.79 s, SD = 267.36), t(86) = 0.90, p = .370. With respect to the manipulation check, participants accurately perceived the number of throws they had received (M = 4.98, SD = 0.63), t(95) = 1.48, p = .747. In terms of perceived social distress (M = 2.46, SD = 0.58), participants’ responses were submitted to a 2 (prime: SNS vs. neutral)  2 (sex; female vs. male) analysis of variance (see Table 1). Participants who received the SNS-prime reported less distress (M = 2.28, SD = 0.63) than the neutral-prime participants (M = 2.63, SD = 0.46), F(1, 92) = 8.667, p = .004, g2 = .09. According to Cohen’s (1988) suggested fallback benchmarks of effect size, this priming effect was medium. Female (M = 2.38, SD = 0.59) and male (M = 2.51, SD = 0.56) participants did not differ in perceived distress, F(1, 92) = 1.247, p = .267, and the priming effect did not interact with participant sex, F(1, 92) = 0.42, p = .518. Following Baron and Kenny (1986), we examined whether felt relatedness would mediate the connection between priming with SNS terms and perceived social distress in the Cyberball game, treating the control condition as the reference group (0 = neutral prime, 1 = SNS prime). Priming with SNS terms predicted the felt sense of relatedness (b = 0.40, SE = 0.15, t = 2.70, p = .008), and felt sense of relatedness predicted perceived distress (b = 0.50, SE = 0.06, t = 8.24, p < .001). However, the effect of SNS primes on perceived distress was not significant (from b = 0.35, SE = 0.11, t = 3.10, p = .003, R2 = .09, to b = 0.15, SE = 0.09, t = 1.70, p = .092, R2 = .02; DR2 = .07) when controlling for felt sense of relatedness (M = 2.58, SD = 0.74). A bootstrap analysis (Preacher & Hayes, 2008) showed that the 95% bias-corrected confidence interval ( 0.36, 0.07) for the indirect effect (b = 0.20, SE = 0.08; bootstrap resamples = 5000) excluded zero, suggesting a significant indirect effect (MacKinnon, Fairchild, & Fritz, 2007). Thus, results of the mediation analysis suggest that a felt sense

Table 1 Means and standard deviations of perceived distress in Experiment 1. Prime conditiona

SNSb prime Neutral prime a b

Female

Male

M

SD

M

SD

2.25 2.51

0.64 0.55

2.30 2.71

0.63 0.41

Each experimental condition involved 20 females and 28 males. SNS = social networking sites.

233

W.-B. Chiou et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 49 (2015) 230–236

Sense of relatedness –0.67 (p = .003)

0.27 (p = .008) –0.31 (p < .001)

Perceived social distress

SNS primes 0.13 (p = .092)

Fig. 1. The effect of priming with SNS on perceived social distress as mediated by felt sense of relatedness. Values are standardized regression coefficients. On the lower path, the values below and above the arrow are the results of analyses in which the mediator was and was not included in the model, respectively.

of relatedness mediated the relationship between the SNS-prime manipulation and subsequent perceived social distress (see Fig. 1). Our first experiment showed that priming with SNS reduced distress in response to social exclusion. The findings suggest that even subliminal exposure to SNS may buffer perceived distress caused by social exclusion. 3. Experiment 2: loss of SNS and intensified distress related to social exclusion We proposed that thinking of SNS as a resource for social connection would account for its priming effect in attenuating perceived distress in response to social exclusion. In the second experiment, we examined whether thinking about being unable to access SNS would increase experienced distress using another social-exclusion technique (i.e., the bogus feedback paradigm; Baumeister et al., 2005; Chiou, Wu, & Lee, 2013; Zhou et al., 2009) 3.1. Method 3.1.1. Participants and design Eighty-eight Facebook users (48 females, 40 males; mean age = 22.6 years, SD = 3.1 years) were recruited via campus posters and flyers at a national university in southern Taiwan. Academic disciplines for students were not recorded. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two priming conditions (SNS non-use vs. neutral) in this between-subjects design. Every four same-sex participants participated in one experimental session. Each experimental condition included 24 female (six all-female groups) and 20 male (five all-male groups) participants. Therefore, proportions of same-sex groups in the two study conditions were identical.

session consisted of four same-sex participants. The same-sex group arrangement was widely adopted in the bogus-feedback paradigm for inducing social exclusion (e.g., Baumeister et al., 2005; Chiou, Wu, & Lee, 2013; Zhou et al., 2009). Every four participants in each same-sex group discussed getting-acquainted questions for 5 min, and they were then led to separate rooms. Each person selected a group member with whom to work on an upcoming dyadic task. The experimenter told each participant that no one had selected that participant, precluding the participant from engaging in the dyad task. Participants then rated their social distress on a four-item scale, identical to that of Experiment 1 (Cronbach’s a = .84 in the current study). Finally, participants were given a funnel debriefing in which questions were identical to those of Experiment 1. Probing showed that none of the participants guessed the real purpose of the experiment. 3.2. Results and discussion The time spent on SNS per day did not differ between the two study groups (Mnon-use = 2.77 h, SD = 0.98; Mneutral = 2.47 h, SD = 0.91), t(86) = 1.52, p = .132, suggesting that equivalent groups appeared to be produced by random assignment. Neither age nor sex (0 = female, 1 = male) was associated with perceived distress (rs < .11, ps > .293). To detect the hypothesized interaction, we standardized the time spent on SNS per day (M = 2.62 h, SD = 0.95), dummy-coded the SNS non-use condition as 1 (0 = neutral), and computed an interaction term by multiplying the two. Following Jaccard, Wan, and Turrisi (1990), we then tested a regression equation predicting perceived distress using condition, time spent on SNS per day, and their interaction as predictors. As hypothesized, the main effect was found (b = 0.34, SE = 0.10), t = 3.57, p < .001, f2 = .11, showing that participants in the SNS non-use condition perceived greater distress (M = 2.81, SD = 0.46) than did participants in the neutral condition (M = 2.43, SD = 0.48). According to Cohen (1988), the magnitude of the main effect was medium. The interaction between SNS use and the experimental condition was also significant (b = 0.22, SE = 0.10), t = 2.25, p = .027, f2 = .04 (see Fig. 2). The positive value of the coefficient indicated that the link between priming with SNS non-use and an increase in perceived distress was stronger as time spent on SNS per day increased. The effect size of this interaction was small (Cohen, 1988).

Neutral 4.0

SNS non-use

3.5

Perceived distress

3.1.2. Procedure After participants provided consent, they completed a survey that was ostensibly about online social networking that included an item about the time spent on SNS per day (in hours; 0 = none; 1 = 0–1 h; 2 = 1–2 h; 3 = 2–3 h; 4 = 3–4 h; 5 = 4–5 h; 6 = 5 h and more). The last question was used to manipulate thoughts about losing SNS access. Participants under the non-use prime condition were asked to recall and record three conditions that would render them unable to use SNS (e.g., a network adaptor problem, malfunctioning cable modem, or problems with Internet service providers). Participants under the neutral condition recalled and recorded three conditions that would render them unable to log onto the college website (e.g., server maintenance, local network or firewall problems). These recorded conditions were not further analyzed. The recall technique (i.e., the ‘‘thinking about conditions of loss’’) was widely employed in priming manipulation (e.g., Zhong & Liljenquist, 2006; Zhong & Leonardelli, 2008; also see Loersch & Payne, 2011 for a related review). Later, we employed a bogus-feedback paradigm (Baumeister et al., 2005; Zhou et al., 2009) to induce social exclusion. Each

3.0

2.5

2.0

Short

Long

Time spent on SNS per day Fig. 2. Participants’ perceived distress as a function of prime condition (SNS nonuse or neutral) and the time spent on SNS per day (1 SD above the mean or 1 SD below the mean).

234

W.-B. Chiou et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 49 (2015) 230–236

Our second experiment provided further confirmation that the impact of thinking about SNS reflects its value as a source of social connection, in that thinking about losing SNS use intensified perceived distress when experiencing social exclusion. The results also suggest that high-intensity SNS users may suffer this detrimental effect to a greater degree. 4. General discussion The popularity of SNS has increased in recent years because these sites may provide a low-cost, supplemental means of establishing and maintaining social connections by reaching large audiences and increasing the frequency of communication (Chiou & Lee, 2013; Ellison et al., 2007; Haythornthwaite, 2005). Building on the social reconnection hypothesis (Maner et al., 2007) which suggests a link between social exclusion and the attention paid to potential sources of social connections (e.g., SNS, Lee & Chiou, 2013), two priming-based experiments showed that SNS mitigated social distress by generating a sense of connectedness, and thinking about losing SNS use intensified perceived distress when being socially excluded. The current research demonstrated that SNS priming was associated with experienced social distress. The link between SNS primes and social distress experiences emerged across two experimental paradigms for inducing social exclusion (i.e., the Cyberball and bogus feedback) at the subliminal and conscious level. We may be the first to provide experimental evidence that priming with SNS can interrupt perceived distress due to social exclusion. The priming approach offers a new direction for research on how online social networking may affect experiences of social distress and social exclusion in the information age. In Experiment 1, our mediation analysis suggests that SNS primes may produce a temporary boost in felt relatedness and thereby decrease perceived distress resulting from social exclusion. These findings suggest that SNS primes may create an illusionary sense of relatedness that can alter the distress experienced in response to social exclusion. They also coincide with the active-self account for perceptual priming (Wheeler et al., 2007), which posits that the activated self mediates perceptual priming effects, e.g., wearing counterfeit products can prime participants to experience a counterfeit self that leads them to judge others as unethical (Gino, Norton, & Ariely, 2010), and counting money helps buffer the distress of social exclusion by making individuals feel stronger (Zhou et al., 2009). Our mediation analysis in Experiment 1 indicated that the SNS primes may induce a temporary boost in the relevant active self (i.e., felt sense of relatedness) and thereby generate a buffering effect on social exclusion. Interestingly, Experiment 2 showed that thinking about the unavailability of SNS increased social exclusion distress. This indicates that the loss of SNS access meant losing a potential means of acquiring social connections. Moreover, results showing that the experimental effects were stronger for users who spent more time on SNS revealed the moderating role of SNS use intensity. These results suggest that heavy users may be more vulnerable to the loss of social networking when experiencing social exclusion. 4.1. Research limitations and future directions We admit that our experimental levels were limited to dichotomized manipulation. The present findings only represented immediate effects in a laboratory setting. Caution should be exercised when generalizing to naturalistic settings. More importantly, priming effects are short-terms changes which are induced by nonconscious activation of prime-related mental content (Bargh, 2006; Loersch & Payne, 2011). Hence, there is a limitation of the priming

paradigm by its failure to detect the long-term effects of SNS primes on the increase/decrease of social distress due to social exclusion. For the bogus-feedback paradigm in Experiment 2, social exclusion was induced in same-sex groups. This arrangement is usually employed to ensure that every participant receives exclusionary information from same-sex others, which may control for the potential confounding effect of sex in mixed-sex groups. However, we acknowledge that the same-sex group arrangement was a limitation for inducing social exclusion. Participants in both experiments were SNS student users and were recruited from a university in Taiwan. The generalizability of the present findings is therefore limited. Additionally, both the mean RT in the vigilance test of Study 1 and the time spent on SNS per day of Study 2 did not differ between the experimental conditions. It is still a limitation that random assignment is not always possible to produce equivalent groups that are equivalent on any number of potentially important subject factors. With regard to future research directions, the social reconnection hypothesis suggests that ostracized individuals may increase the attention paid to potential sources of connection (Maner et al., 2007). Additional research on the longitudinal relationship between social exclusion and SNS use is necessary. Although our two experiments demonstrate the association between SNS (the loss of SNS) and reduced (increased) distress in response to social exclusion, we suspect that this relationship is not invariant. Besides the moderating role of intensity use of SNS founded in Experiment 2, one important moderator might be the need for affiliation (or belonging). Evolutionary perspectives on fundamental human needs suggest that individuals with higher affiliation motivation are inclined to increase their attention to sources that provide social connections (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Buss, 1991). Park, Jin, and Jin (2011) found that the need for affiliation was positively associated with the motivations for relationship maintenance and initiation in Facebook. Lee and Chiou (2013) showed that priming with affiliation motivation would induce users to think about SNS. Therefore, future research may test whether the link between SNS primes and perceived distress of social exclusion would be stronger for individuals with high affiliation motivation. In regard to cultural differences, Hofstede (1980) proposed that each society may have a culture that can be characterized as either individualistic (e.g., America, Australia) or collectivistic (e.g., China, India, Taiwan). Whether the priming effect of SNS on the distress of social exclusion would be more prominent in societies with the culture of relatedness (i.e., a collectivistic culture; Kagitcibasi, 2005) is worthy of investigation. 4.2. Conclusions Social exclusion can impair an individual’s psychological and physiological well-being (Diener & Seligman, 2002; Williams, 2007). Human beings everywhere are using online social networking to facilitate social connections (Boyd & Ellison, 2007; QuanHaase, Wellman, & Witte, 2002). SNS may not only change how social interaction occurs but also fundamentally alter the way of experiencing and coping with social exclusion. What we can infer from our studies, however, is that thinking about the availability of online social networking may alleviate the perceived distress related to social exclusion, but considering its potential unavailability may heighten the distress of social exclusion. The demonstrated link between the idea of SNS (losing SNS use) and decreased (increased) distress owing to social exclusion reveals the importance of SNS as a potential means for acquiring and rebuilding social connections. Use of online social networking appears to be a double-edged sword for coping with social exclusion in our e-society.

W.-B. Chiou et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 49 (2015) 230–236

Acknowledgments This research was partially supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (contract No. MOST 103-2628-H-110-002-MY2). Dr. Wen-Bin Chiou would also like to acknowledge the support received from ‘‘Aim for the Top University Plan’’ of the National Sun Yat-sen University and Ministry of Education, Taiwan, Republic of China. References Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1989). Attachments beyond infancy. American Psychologist, 44, 709–716. Bargh, J. A. (2006). Agenda 2006: What have we been priming all these years? On the development, mechanisms, and ecology of nonconscious social behavior. European Journal of Social Psychology, 36, 147–168. Bargh, J. A., Chen, M., & Burrows, L. (1996). Automaticity of social behavior: Direct effects of trait construct and stereotype activation on action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 230–244. Bargh, J. A., & McKenna, K. Y. A. (2004). The internet and social life. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 573–590. Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173–1182. 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. 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. Baumeister, R. F., & Tice, D. M. (1990). Anxiety and social exclusion. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 9, 165–195. 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. Boyd, D. M., & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13, 210–230. Burt, R. S. (2005). Brokerage and closure: An introduction to social capital. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Buss, D. M. (1990). The evolution of anxiety and social exclusion. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 9, 196–210. Buss, D. M. (1991). Evolutionary personality psychology. Annual Review of Psychology, 42, 459–491. Cacioppo, J. T., Hawkley, L. C., & Bernston, G. G. (2003). The anatomy of loneliness. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 12, 71–74. Chartrand, T. L., & Bargh, J. A. (1996). Automatic activation of impression formation and memorization goals: Nonconscious goal priming reproduces effects of explicit task instructions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 464–478. Chiou, W.-B., & Chao, Y.-H. (2011). Genuineness matters: Using cheaper, generic products induces detrimental self-evaluations. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 672–675. Chiou, W.-B., & Cheng, Y.-Y. (2013). In broad daylight, we trust in God! Brightness, the salience of morality, and ethical behavior. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 36, 37–42. Chiou, W.-B., & Lee, C.-C. (2013). Enactment of one-to-many communication may induce self-focused attention that leads to diminished perspective taking. Judgment and Decision Making, 8, 372–380. Chiou, W.-B., Wu, W.-H., & Lee, K.-T. (2013). The achievement of masculinity through energy-drink consumption: Experimental evidence supporting a closer look at the popularity of energy drinks among men. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 14, 444–451. Chou, H. T. G., & Edge, N. (2012). They are happier and having better lives than I am: The impact of using Facebook on perceptions of others’ lives. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, & Social Networking, 15, 117–121. Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. DeWall, N. C., Maner, J. K., & Rouby, A. D. (2009). Social exclusion and early-stage interpersonal perception: Selective attention to signs of acceptance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 729–741. Diener, E., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2002). Very happy people. Psychological Science, 13, 81–84. Dijksterhuis, A., & Bargh, J. A. (2001). The perception-behavior expressway: Automatic effects of social perception on social behavior. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.). Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 33, pp. 1–40). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Dong, T.-P., Cheng, N.-C., & Wu, Y. J. (2014). A study of the social networking website service in digital content industries: The Facebook case in Taiwan. Computers in Human Behavior, 30, 708–714. Eisenberger, N. I., Lieberman, M. D., & Williams, K. D. (2003). Does rejection hurt? An fMRI study of social exclusion. Science, 302, 290–292. Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The benefits of Facebook ‘‘friends’’: Social capital and college students’ use of online social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12, 1143–1168.

235

Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2010). Connection strategies: Social capital implications of Facebook-enabled communication practices. New Media & Society, 13, 873–892. Fitzsimons, G. M., Chartrand, T. L., & Fitzsimons, G. J. (2008). Automatic effects of brand exposure on motivated behavior: How apple makes you ‘‘think different’’. Journal of Consumer Research, 35, 21–35. Forest, A. L., & Wood, J. V. (2012). When social networking is not working: Individuals with low self-esteem recognize but do not reap the benefits of selfdisclosure on Facebook. Psychological Science, 23, 295–302. Gangadharbatla, H. (2008). Facebook me: Collective self-esteem, need to belong, and Internet self-efficacy as predictors of the iGeneration’s attitudes toward social networking sites. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 8, 5–15. 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. Gino, F., Norton, M. I., & Ariely, D. (2010). The counterfeit self: The deceptive costs of faking it. Psychological Science, 21, 712–720. Gonzales, A. L., & Hancock, J. T. (2011). Mirror, mirror on my Facebook wall: Effects of exposure to Facebook on self-esteem. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, & Social Networking, 14, 79–83. Haythornthwaite, C. (2005). Social networks and internet connectivity effects. Information Communication and Society, 8, 125–147. Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture’s consequences: International differences in work related values. London, UK: Sage. Jaccard, J., Wan, C. K., & Turrisi, R. (1990). The detection and interpretation of interaction effects between continuous variables in a multiple regression. Multivariate Behavior Research, 25, 467–478. Kagitcibasi, C. (2005). Autonomy and relatedness in cultural context: Implications for self and family. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 36, 403–422. Leary, M. R. (1990). Responses to social exclusion: Social anxiety, jealousy, loneliness, depression, and low self-esteem. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 9, 221–229. Lee, C.-C., & Chiou, W.-B. (2013). Keep logging in! Experimental evidence showing the relation of affiliation needs to the idea of online social networking. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 16, 419–422. Lin, N. (2001). Social capital: A theory of social structure and action. New York: Cambridge University Press. Lin, K.-Y., & Lu, H.-P. (2011). Why people use social networking sites: An empirical study integrating network externalities and motivation theory. Computers in Human Behavior, 27, 1152–1161. Loersch, C., & Payne, B. K. (2011). The situated inference model: An integrative account of the effects of primes on perception, behavior, and motivation. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6, 234–252. Lu, H.-P., & Yang, Y.-W. (2014). Toward an understanding of the behavioral intention to use a social networking site: An extension of task-technology fit to social-technology fit. Computers in Human Behavior, 34, 323–332. MacKinnon, D. P., Fairchild, A. J., & Fritz, M. S. (2007). Mediation analysis. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 593–614. 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, 42–55. Park, N., Jin, B., & Jin, S. A. (2011). Effects of self-disclosure on relational intimacy in Facebook. Computers in Human Behaviors, 27, 1974–1983. Pavey, L., Greitemeyer, T., & Sparks, P. (2011). Highlighting relatedness promotes prosocial motives and behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37, 905–917. Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40, 879–891. Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York: Simon & Schuster. Quan-Haase, A., Wellman, B., & Witte, J. (2002). Capitalizing on the internet: Network capital, participatory capital, and sense of community. In B. C. Wellman & C. Haythornthwaite (Eds.), The internet in everyday life (pp. 291–324). Oxford, UK: Blackwell. Schröder, T., & Thagard, P. (2013). The affective meanings of automatic social behaviors: Three mechanisms that explain priming. Psychological Review, 120, 255–280. Sheldon, K. M., & Gunz, A. (2009). Psychological needs as basic motives, not just experiential requirements. Journal of Personality, 77, 1467–1492. Shidlovski, D., & Hassin, R. R. (2011). When pooping babies become more appealing: The effects of nonconscious goal pursuit on experienced emotions. Psychological Science, 22, 1381–1385. Sparrow, B., Liu, J., & Wegner, D. M. (2011). Google effects on memory: Cognitive consequences of having information at our fingertips. Science, 333, 776–778. Steinfield, C., Ellison, N. B., & Lampe, C. (2008). Social capital, self-esteem, and use of online social network sites: A longitudinal analysis. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 29, 434–445. Valenzuela, S., Park, N., & Kee, K. F. (2009). Is there social capital in a social network site? Facebook use and college students’ life satisfaction, trust, and participation. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 14, 875–901. Wheeler, S. C., DeMarree, K. G., & Petty, R. E. (2007). Understanding the role of the self in prime to behavior effects: The active-self account. Personality and Social Psychological Review, 11, 234–261.

236

W.-B. Chiou et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 49 (2015) 230–236

Williams, K. D. (2007). Ostracism. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 425–452. 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, 748–762. Williams, K. D., & Sommer, K. L. (1997). Social ostracism by one’s coworkers: Does rejection lead to loafing or compensation? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 693–706. Wilson, K., Fornasier, S., & White, K. M. (2010). Psychological predictors of young adults’ use of social networking sites. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, & Social Networking, 13, 173–177.

Wu, P.-L., & Chiou, W.-B. (2009). More options lead to more searching and worse choices in finding partners for romantic relationships online: An experimental study. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 12, 315–318. Zhong, C.-B., & Leonardelli, G. J. (2008). Cold and lonely: Does social exclusion literally feel cold? Psychological Science, 19, 838–842. Zhong, C.-B., & Liljenquist, K. (2006). Washing away your sins: Threatened morality and physical cleansing. Science, 33, 1451–1452. Zhou, X., Vohs, K. D., & Baumeister, R. F. (2009). The symbolic power of money. Reminders of money alter social distress and physical pain. Psychological Science, 20, 700–706.