Can sensing your heartbeat help you handle social rejection?
People who are better at sensing their own internal bodily cues, like their heartbeat, experience less distress when socially excluded and are more capable of regulating their emotions.
Source
When interoception helps to overcome negative feelings caused by social exclusion
What they did
In the first study, researchers measured how accurately Sixty-nine female participants could count their own heartbeats without taking their pulse. Next, these participants played a virtual ball-tossing game called Cyberball, where they were either included, excluded by other players, or excluded due to a simulated technical failure. Finally, researchers measured their emotional distress and how close they allowed a co-player to stand to them. In a second study, 116 participants, including 27 male individuals, had their heartbeat awareness tested and completed a questionnaire assessing their habitual use of different emotion regulation strategies.
What they found
The first study revealed that while being excluded made everyone feel worse, participants with higher body awareness experienced significantly less threat to their psychological needs. These highly body-aware individuals also chose a shorter physical distance from their social partners after exclusion, indicating a stronger drive to reconnect. Additionally, the second study showed that higher body awareness was significantly associated with a greater ability to use both cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression to regulate daily emotions.
The limits
What it doesn't show
One limitation is that the initial study only included female participants, meaning these specific behavioral responses to exclusion cannot be generalized to men. Another limitation is that because both studies used correlational measures for body awareness, they cannot prove that a better ability to sense bodily signals directly causes better emotion regulation. Lastly, the physical distance test occurred in a laboratory setting, which might not perfectly mirror how people seek out or avoid social connection in the real world.
Key terms
- Interoception
- The perception and awareness of internal bodily signals, such as heartbeats, breathing, or hunger.
- Interoceptive sensitivity
- An individual's objective accuracy in detecting their own physiological signals, often measured via a heartbeat counting task.
- Ostracism
- The act of excluding or ignoring an individual or group in a social setting.
- Cyberball
- A standardized virtual ball-tossing computer game used in psychology experiments to induce feelings of social inclusion or exclusion.
- Cognitive reappraisal
- An emotion regulation strategy that involves changing how one thinks about a situation to alter its emotional impact.
- Expressive suppression
- An emotion regulation strategy that involves inhibiting outward signs of inner emotional states.
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Quiz yourself
What is the Cyberball paradigm and what is its primary use in psychology?
Common questions
How does being aware of my heartbeat help me deal with being left out?
People who are more aware of their internal bodily states can detect and understand their emotional changes more quickly. This accurate internal feedback makes it easier for them to actively manage and down-regulate negative feelings like sadness or rejection.
Why did excluded participants want to stand closer to their co-players?
When people are socially excluded, their fundamental need to belong is threatened. Standing closer to a co-player is a subconscious behavior aimed at restoring social connection and coping with the pain of rejection.
Does this mean people with low body awareness can never regulate their emotions well?
No, it simply suggests that high body awareness is a helpful asset. People with lower body awareness can still use alternative cognitive strategies, but they might find bodily-focused regulation more challenging.
Was there a difference between being ignored on purpose versus due to a computer glitch?
Yes, participants who were told their exclusion was due to a technical failure did not seek closer physical proximity to the other players, showing that the urge to reconnect is specifically triggered by perceived intentional social rejection.
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