“This Message was Deleted”: The Psychological Consequences of Being Out of the Loop During Messenger Use

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ABSTRACT Many messenger services, such as WhatsApp or Snapchat, offer the option of deleting messages after they have been sent, leaving a so-called delete notification in the chat. Especially in group chats, the chat partner not having read a message before its deletion cannot participate in the ongoing conversation and might feel out of the loop. Drawing on the Temporal Need Threat Model, the present manuscript investigates whether this experience evokes feelings of social exclusion. In a pre-registered vignette experiment, 210 participants were exposed to screen videos of a group chat and either received (1) delete notifications (i.e., being out of the loop), (2) no responses at all (i.e., ostracism), or (3) messages (i.e., inclusion). Results indicate that, compared to being included, out-of-the-loop and ostracism experiences impaired users’ mood and threatened their fundamental needs for belonging, self-esteem, meaningful existence, and control. Both exclusion episodes did not differ in their effects. Moreover, users’ fear of missing out did not moderate these effects. Although the delete feature may offer advantages for senders (e.g., withdrawing incorrect messages), the identified adverse effects on those receiving these notifications highlight the relevance of developing more user-friendly and psychologically desirable communication technologies.