The Impact Of Social Exclusion On The Sense Of Agency Of Individuals

Humans are social creatures and social interaction is essential to us.When we are accepted by others and establish positive,stable,and long-term social relationships with them,our basic needs are met.These needs include the sense of belonging,self-esteem,control,and meaningful existence.In daily life,we often observe the existence of exclusion phenomena.These phenomena may manifest in different forms,such as refusing to socialize with someone or not responding to someone’s words or actions.Being ignored or excluded is a painful experience that can have negative effects on an individual’s physical and mental well-being.This experience threatens individuals’ basic needs and makes them feel emotionally low,helpless,worthless,and isolated.Previous research has demonstrated that activation of memories of social exclusion can reduce an individual’s sense of agency,which refers to the perception of one’s own control over behavior and impact on the external world.As a fundamental component of the need for control,the study of sense of agency has important implications for understanding the meaning of social responsibility,as it involves cognitive processes related to the perception and evaluation of behavioral consequences.Such research can deepen our understanding of the relationship between human sense of control and sense of belonging,as well as the impact of exclusion on the fulfillment of basic needs.In addition,the rationality of motivation may potentially modulate the impact of exclusion on sense of agency.For instance,when motivation is rational,individuals’ sense of agency may not significantly change,as they can control their behavior and take social responsibility.On the other hand,when motivation is irrational,it may lead to a decrease in sense of agency,which can affect the individual’s ability to control their behavior and develop a sense of social responsibility.Therefore,this study first validates whether experiencing exclusion can reduce an individual’s sense of agency,then examines the impact of observing exclusion on the observer’s sense of agency,and finally explores whether the rationality of motivation can modulate the impact of social exclusion on the sense of agency of both the excluded individual and the observer.Study 1 is a confirmatory experiment,previous research has shown that activation of memories of social exclusion can reduce an individual’s sense of agency(Malik &Obhi,2019).However,in this study,on the one hand,the participants did not directly experience exclusion,and on the other hand,the researchers did not measure the participants’ explicit sense of agency after recalling experiences of exclusion.Therefore,Study 1 mainly used a virtual cyberball game with higher ecological validity,combined with the Libet clock paradigm and a sense of agency questionnaire,to verify whether direct experience of social exclusion would reduce an individual’s sense of agency.The results showed that social exclusion reduced both implicit and explicit sense of agency.Study 2 was based on the theory of the social pain perception system,which suggests that individuals as observers may also exhibit sensitivity to social rejection events.Two experiments were conducted in this study to investigate whether observing others being rejected would also decrease an individual’s agency.In Experiment 2a,participants wrote down their experiences of observing rejection or inclusion,and then performed a time interval estimation task after the writing task.In Experiment 2b,similar to Study 1,participants were immersed in a virtual ball-tossing game,where they observed scenes of others being rejected or included,and then completed the Libet clock paradigm and agency questionnaire.Results showed that observing rejection decreased both implicit and explicit agency of observers.Study 3 aimed to explore changes in individuals’ agency perception as victims and observers in contexts of social exclusion and inclusion,using behavioral measurements and event-related potential(ERPs)techniques.The study consisted of two experiments.Experiment 3a employed a 2(social condition: victim of exclusion/inclusion)× 2(motive: reasonable/unreasonable)within-subject design,in which participants were induced to experience reasonable/unreasonable inclusion/exclusion feelings using role-playing and the online ball-tossing game(Cyberball Game),followed by a time interval estimation task and subjective questionnaire to measure implicit and explicit active control.Results showed that individuals’ implicit agency perception was significantly reduced after experiencing exclusion,regardless of the motive.Specifically,the lowest level of agency perception was observed when participants experienced unreasonable exclusion,as indicated by the largest P2 wave amplitude.In reasonable exclusion conditions,the N1 wave amplitude was most negative,indicating weak causal connections and increased moral conflict,while the agency perception did not decrease significantly.Experiment 3b was similar to Experiment 3a,but focused on changes in agency perception as observers.Results showed a significant main effect of social condition,with participants showing significantly lower agency perception when observing exclusion than inclusion.ERP results showed that when observing unreasonable inclusion,the N1 wave amplitude was most negative,while there was no significant difference in P2 wave amplitude,indicating that observing unreasonable inclusion generated the most moral conflict but no difference in emotional attention.In summary,the experimental results of this study demonstrate that social exclusion not only reduces the agency of individuals who experience it,but also reduces the agency of individuals who observe it;and the rationality of motivation plays a moderating role between social exclusion and agency.Moreover,for observers,irrational inclusion significantly reduces individual agency.This study sheds light on the impact of social exclusion on individual agency from different perspectives,enriches the research content of social exclusion,and provides some insights for future intervention measures.