The effect of being shunned upon the desire to affiliate

Abstract

While sitting in a waiting room, each of 40 male Ss was exposed to a pair of confederates (Cs) who either did not speak to him (no explicit negative evaluation) or one of whom berated his beliefs on a specific topic (explicit negative evaluation). Midway through a period preceding the ostensible experiment, one of the Cs moved away from half the Ss to sit closer to another C (implicit negative evaluation). For the other half, the C remained seated a short distance from the S throughout the waiting period (no implicit negative evaluation). An implicit negative evaluation severely reduced S’s desire to affiliate with the C who moved, the effect actually being stronger when there was no explicit evaluation. Moreover, the implicit negative evaluation alone reduced the desire to affiliate significantly more than did the explicit negative evaluation alone.