title: Replenishing connectedness: reminders of social activity reduce aggression after social exclusion.
abstract: Previous research found that social rejection leads to increased aggression. How can this aggressive behaviour be prevented? Four experiments demonstrate that reminders of social activity reduce aggression after social exclusion. A brief, friendly social connection with an experimenter (versus a neutral interaction) reduced aggression after social rejection. A traditional mood induction had no effect on aggressive behaviour, showing that an activity must be social to be effective. Participants who wrote about a family member, a friend or a favourite celebrity were also not aggressive after rejection. The effect was mediated by trust in other people but not by state self-esteem or mood. Rejected participants who have an alternative source of social connection eschew the increased aggression usually displayed after social exclusion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA. jtwenge@mail.sdsu.edu
authors.forename: Jean M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Twenge
authors.forename: Liqing
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Kathleen R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Catanese
authors.forename: Brenda
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dolan-Pascoe
authors.forename: Leif F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Lyche
authors.forename: Roy F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Baumeister
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D035841:Behavioral Research; D002140:California; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D011593:Psychology, Social; D012059:Rejection, Psychology; D035844:Researcher-Subject Relations; D012649:Self Concept; D012918:Social Alienation / Q000523:psychology*; D035502:Trust