The Effect Of Social Rejection On Physical And Mental Warmth

Social rejection is a common phenomenon which means that a person wants to establish and maintain a relationship with some people or a social group,but is not accepted.People often use the physical temperature terms to the sensations of psychologically ‘‘warm’’ or ‘‘cold’’ feelings,and this expression has cross-cultural consistency.That is,the concept of mental warmth is based on the sensation and concept of physical temperature.Therefore,it’s necessary to study the relationship between social rejection and physical and mental warmth.By combing the existing research about the relationship between social rejection and physical and mental warmth,it can be found that there are two main problems:First,the existing research has focused on the main cause of social rejection-sadness,which means psychologically cold,but little attention has been paid to other main causes.Secondly,the existing research has focused on directly discussing the impact of social rejection on physical and mental warmth,but ignoring the influence of personality factors.On the basis of these problems,four experiments was conducted to explore the difference of two different types of social rejection,which were sadness(psychologically cold)and anger(psychologically warmth),and further explore the role of self-esteem,as a stable personality trait,in the influence of two different types of social rejection on the physical and mental warmth.The following conclusions were drawn:(1)Social rejection triggered by the recall paradigm could induce a negative emotion dominated by sadness.Sadness-based social rejection could reduce a person’s temperature sensation of the surrounding physical environment,and increase need for affiliation,and desire for hot showers,sweets,and shopping to regulate their emotion.This indicates that Sadness-based social rejection indeed induce a psychological "cold",whose essence may be a cold sense of injury.(2)Social rejection triggered by the network throwing paradigm could induce a negative emotion dominated by anger.Anger-based social rejection could increase aperson’s temperature sensation of the surrounding physical environment,and increase need for affiliation,and desire for cold showers,shopping,and running to regulate their emotion.This indicates that Anger-based social rejection indeed induce a psychological "heat",whose essence may be a hot sense of injury.(3)There were different characteristics by sadness-based social rejection and anger-based social rejection on the influence of physical and mental warmth,but still something in common.(4)After suffering sadness-based "cold" social rejection,the effect of self-esteem on physical and mental warmth were as following: Physically,individuals with low self-esteem had lower temperature sensation of the surrounding physical environment than those with high self-esteem.psychologically,individuals with low self-esteem had stronger desire for avoiding cold showers than those with high self-esteem,and individuals with high self-esteem had stronger desire for running than those with low self-esteem.This indicates that individuals with low self-esteem are more sensitive to the "cold" social rejection.(5)After suffering anger-based "hot" social rejection,the effect of self-esteem on physical and mental warmth were as following: Emotionally,anger of individuals with low self-esteem was higher than those with high self-esteem individuals.physically,individuals with low self-esteem had higher temperature sensation of the surrounding physical environment than those with high self-esteem.psychologically,individuals with low self-esteem had stronger desire for cold showers and running than those with high self-esteem.This indicates that individuals with low self-esteem are also more sensitive to the "hot" social rejection.(6)The buffering effect of self-esteem on two different types of social rejection on the physical and mental warmth.And individuals with high self-esteem are less susceptible to social rejection.