Paper Title
Social Exclusion and the Deconstructed State: Time Perception, Meaninglessness, Lethargy, Lack of Emotion, and Self-Awareness.
Keywords
- Social Exclusion
- Cognitive Deconstruction
- Time Perception
- Meaninglessness
- Lethargy
- Emotion Suppression
- Self-Awareness
- Defensive State
- Present Focus
- Delayed Gratification
- Reaction Times
- Implicit Emotion Task
- Psychological Withdrawal
- Social Rejection
- Mental Avoidance
- Self-Escape
Research Impact Tools
Publication Info
Volume: 85 | Issue: 3 | Pages: 409–423
Published On
September, 2003
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Abstract
The authors hypothesize that socially excluded individuals enter a defensive state of cognitive deconstruction that avoids meaningful thought, emotion, and self-awareness, and is characterized by lethargy and altered time flow. Social rejection led to an overestimation of time intervals, a focus on the present rather than the future, and a failure to delay gratification (Experiment 1). Rejected participants were more likely to agree that "Life is meaningless" (Experiment 2). Excluded participants wrote fewer words and displayed slower reaction times (Experiments 3 and 4). They chose fewer emotion words in an implicit emotion task (Experiment 5), replicating the lack of emotion on explicit measures (Experiments 1-3 and 6). Excluded participants also tried to escape from self-awareness by facing away from a mirror (Experiment 6). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)
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