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Article history:Available online 19 March 2015

Keywords:CyberballOnline social networking

tools that can promote the creation of social connections by pro-

and maintaining social connections in the information age (Bargh&McKenna, 2004; Ellison et al., 2007; Haythornthwaite, 2005), willthinking about SNS (i.e., available social connections) interrupt the

on the predictors, correlates, and outcomes of SNS use (e.g., Choudharbatla, 2008;White, 2010; Wused the excial excluswing the p

social exclusion, and thoughts of losing SNS can increase the dis-tress experienced from social exclusion.

The term social capital refers to the resources available toindividuals through their social interactions (Lin, 2001; Putnam,2000). In principle, social capital is embedded in the structure ofsocial networks and the location of individuals within these struc-tures (Burt, 2005). Ellison, Steineld, and Lampe (2010) proposedthat SNS may have social capital implications because they have

Corresponding author at: Institute of Education, National Sun Yat-senUniversity, 70 Lien-Hai Rd., Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan, Republic of China. Tel.:+886 7 5252000 5884; fax: +886 7 5250133.

E-mail address: wbchiou@mail.nsysu.edu.tw (W.-B. Chiou).

Computers in Human Behavior 49 (2015) 230236

Contents lists availab

Computers in Hu

evitions (DeWall, Maner, & Rouby, 2009; Williams, 2007). If onlinesocial networking has become a popular means of establishing

effect of online social networking on the experience of social exclu-sion: priming with SNS can mitigate perceived distress due toviding a convenient platform that can be accessed at any time(Bargh & McKenna, 2004; Ellison, Steineld, & Lampe, 2007). Theexperience of being ignored, rejected, or excluded is pervasive inhuman social life. Prior literature suggests that social exclusionmay draw attention to resources that could facilitate social connec-

& Edge, 2012; Forest & Wood, 2012; GangaGonzales & Hancock, 2011; Wilson, Fornasier, && Chiou, 2009). However, no study has addreswhich SNS inuence the distress of perceived sothis study, we report experimental evidence shohttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.02.0640747-5632/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.tent toion. Inriming1. Introduction

Social interaction appeared to be costly before the Internetbecame ubiquitous (Bargh & McKenna, 2004). Social networkingsites (SNS) such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ are low-cost

perceived distress associated with social exclusion? Determiningwhether the idea of online social networking is related to theexperience of social exclusion is pertinent for understanding howstrongly SNS have become a potential source of social connectionsin contemporary social life. Previous studies have mainly focusedPerceived distressPrimingSocial exclusionSocial networking sites (SNS) are extremely popular for providing users with an efcient platform foracquiring social links. We experimentally explored whether priming with SNS would interfere with per-ceptions of social exclusion experiences. Experiment 1, involving 96 undergraduate Facebook users,demonstrated that priming with SNS was associated with decreased distress experienced in an online vir-tual ball-tossing game (the exclusionary Cyberball). Felt relatedness mediated the link between SNSprimes and reduced social distress. Experiment 2, involving 88 current users of Facebook, showed thatthoughts of losing SNS intensied distress caused by social exclusion, suggesting that the loss of SNSappears to signify the loss of a potential source of social reconnection. Moreover, the magnifying effectof SNS unavailability on the distress associated with social exclusion was more prominent for heavyusers. This research provides the rst demonstration that SNS (or the loss thereof) can neutralize (aug-ment) perceived distress related to social exclusion. Our ndings indicate that online social networkingmay more profoundly inuence how users experience social exclusion in the information age than pre-viously believed.

2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c tResearch Report

Facebook effects on social distress: Priminetworking thoughts can alter the perceiexclusion

Wen-Bin Chiou a,, Chun-Chia Lee b, Da-Chi Liao ca Institute of Education, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Republic obDepartment of Information Management, Fooyin University, Taiwan, Republic of Chinac Institute of Political Science, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Repu

journal homepage: www.elswith online sociald distress due to social

ina

of China

le at ScienceDirect

man Behavior

er .com/locate /comphumbeh

Humthe potential to reshape social networks and lower the cost of com-munication. Using survey data from an undergraduate samplefrom the U.S., Ellison et al. (2007) demonstrated that Facebookuse is closely associated with the formation and maintenance ofsocial capital, including bridging (which refers to the informationalbenets of a heterogeneous network of weak ties) and bonding(which refers to the emotional benets from strong ties to closefriends and family). Furthermore, Steineld, Ellison, and Lampe(2008) conducted a longitudinal analysis of panel data fromFacebook users and found that Facebook use in year one stronglypredicted bridging social capital outcomes in year two. Moreover,they found that self-esteem may operate as a moderator of therelationship between SNS use and social capital. Specically, par-ticipants with lower self-esteem appeared to benet more fromtheir use of Facebook than did those with higher self-esteem.Additionally, a random web survey of college students (n = 2603)suggested that Facebook use is positively related to life satisfac-tion, social trust, civic engagement, and political participation,which enhance individuals social capital (Valenzuela, Park, &Kee, 2009). These studies indicate that online social networkingmay play a crucial role in social connection, which inuences theformation and maintenance of social capital.

The desire to form and maintain social bonds has deep roots inevolutionary history (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Buss, 1990).Ostracism, interpersonal rejection, and other forms of social exclu-sion appear to be highly aversive (Baumeister & Tice, 1990;Williams, 2007). Exclusion-related experiences have been foundto be associated with anxiety, loneliness, jealousy, depression,low self-esteem (e.g., Leary, 1990), decrements in intelligentthought (including IQ and Graduate Record Examination test per-formance; Baumeister, Twenge, & Nuss, 2002), and reducedimmune system functioning (see Cacioppo, Hawkley, & Bernston,2003, for a related review). These devastating consequences ofsocial exclusion and the importance of social ties to survival(Ainsworth, 1989; Buss, 1990) indicate that coping with socialexclusion is an important ability for human beings. The social-re-connection hypothesis (Maner, DeWall, Baumeister, & Schaller,2007), which stems from theory pertaining to the links amongmotivation, deprivation, and goal attainment, proposes that whena fundamental human motivation is hampered, humans (like otherspecies) often seek alternative means to satisfy that need. Previousstudies have provided support for the reconnection hypothesis. Forinstances, Williams and Sommer (1997) found that excluded par-ticipants made more effort in a subsequent group task, indicatingthat they were motivated to make themselves appear sociallydesirable. Williams, Cheung, and Choi (2000) observed that ostra-cized individuals were more likely than others to show conformity.Gardner, Pickett, and Brewer (2000) showed that participants whohad been socially excluded recalled more events related to aflia-tion, suggesting that social exclusion may increase the attentionpaid to potential sources of social connection.

According to the social reconnection hypothesis (Maner et al.,2007), experiences of social exclusion may serve as signals thatsocial connection needs are not satised. Thus, excluded individu-als may feel an especially strong desire to form bonds with othersto satisfy these needs. Given that SNS can serve as a convenientplatform for acquiring social connections, it is reasonable to sup-pose that when experiencing social exclusion, individuals may beprimed to think about SNS as meeting fundamental human needs.A recent study conducted by Lee and Chiou (2013) lends credibilityto this hypothesized connection. They employed a modied Strooptask (a color-word naming task) to test reaction times to SNS andnon-SNS terms (including general terms and brand names). In

W.-B. Chiou et al. / Computers inprinciple, individuals who are primed to think about a topic typi-cally show slower reaction times in naming the color of relatedwords (Chiou & Cheng, 2013; Sparrow, Liu, & Wegner, 2011).This is because those words become more accessible to the mindand thereby draw attention away from the font color of testingterms, leading to a longer reaction time (i.e., Stroop interference).The results showed that excluded participants took longer to namethe font color of SNS-related words (and SNS brand names) thanthey did for matched general words (and other global brandnames). These ndings suggest that social exclusion may primeusers with thoughts about SNS.

From the perspective of perceptual priming (Bargh, 2006;Dijksterhuis & Bargh, 2001; Schrder & Thagard, 2013) primescan inuence human perception by altering the accessibility ofprime-related mental content (Loersch & Payne, 2011). For exam-ple, Zhou, Vohs, and Baumeister (2009) tested whether thoughtsof having money would prime a broad sense of strength or efcacyand thereby blunt the distress of being rejected. In one experiment,participants were given a nger-dexterity task. Those in the moneycondition counted out 80 $100 bills, whereas participants in thepaper condition counted out 80 pieces of paper. These researchersshowed that handling money (compared with handling paper)reduced the distress of social exclusion experienced in a com-puterized ball-tossing game (i.e., the Cyberball game;Eisenberger, Lieberman, & Williams, 2003). Shidlovski and Hassin(2011) primed female participants with a motherhood goal andassessed how disgusted they were in response to being shownmildly disgusting pictures (e.g., babies with runny noses, dirty dia-pers). They demonstrated that perceived disgust was weakeramong participants who had received the motherhood prime thannon-primed controls.

The social-reconnection hypothesis (Maner et al., 2007) andprior research supporting this notion (e.g., Gardner et al., 2000;Williams et al., 2000; Williams & Sommer, 1997) suggest thatsocial exclusion is associated with the attention paid to potentialsources of social connections such as SNS (Lee & Chiou, 2013).Based on recent advancements in priming research, we contendthat SNS, as a potential resource for social connection, may primeindividuals with a general sense of relatedness, thus leading themto perceive less distress when being socially excluded. Thishypothesis is also supported by the active-self account for primingeffects (Wheeler, DeMarree, & Petty, 2007), which proposes that anactivated relevant self (e.g., felt sense of relatedness in the currentcontext) mediates prime-to-perception effects (e.g., a strong senseof self-efcacy mediates the link between money prime andreduced distress of social exclusion in Zhou et al., 2009; a loweredsense of self-worth mediates the association between incidentaluse of cheaper, generic products and disadvantageous self-evalua-tions in Chiou & Chao, 2011). Further, if SNS primes can reduceexperienced distress caused by social exclusion, then thoughts oflosing SNS, in contrast, may signal the unavailability of a potentialsource for social reconnections and thereby intensify perceiveddistress when experiencing social exclusion. Moreover, if thinkingabout losing SNS may prime elevated distress at social exclusion,then such loss will have an especially strong effect on users withmore intense SNS use; SNS loss should make those individualsmore vulnerable to socially exclusive experiences.

In the current research, we conducted two experiments to testthe hypothesis that reminders of SNS altered the impact of socialevents, especially those involving social exclusion. Experiment 1examined whether the subliminal prime of SNS was associatedwith decreased distress experienced in an online virtual ball-toss-ing game (the Cyberball game; Eisenberger, Lieberman, &Williams,2003). The rst experiment also investigated the mediating role ofthe sense of felt relatedness in the link between SNS primes andreduced distress at social exclusion. Experiment 2 explored

an Behavior 49 (2015) 230236 231whether thoughts of losing SNS would intensify perceived socialdistress induced by exclusionary bogus feedback (Baumeister,DeWall, Ciarocco, & Twenge, 2005). We further tested whether

2008).

players waiting 0.53.0 s before making a throw to heighten the

the ball ve times, they were excluded from the remaining 30throws. Afterward, participants completed a brief questionnaire(I felt liked; I felt rejected; I felt invisible; and I felt power-ful; Eisenberger et al., 2003) that assessed perceived social dis-tress on a 5-point scale, ranging from 0 (not at all) to 4 (verymuch). Responses were averaged to yield an index of social distress(Cronbachs a = .87 in the current study).

SE = 0.06, t = 8.24, p < .001). However, the effect of SNS primes

Human Behavior 49 (2015) 230236sense that the participant was actually playing with other individ-uals. Each participant could return the ball to a player by pressingAfter the priming task, participants completed a ller question-naire while the experimenter set up the next task. Besides demo-graphic questions, each participant rated their sense ofrelatedness, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree),on four items (positively worded: There are people I can turn to atthis moment; and I feel a bond with other people at thismoment, and negatively worded: I feel isolated from others atthis moment; and I feel lonely at this moment; adapted fromSheldon & Gunz, 2009; Pavey, Greitemeyer, & Sparks, 2011;Cronbachs a = .86 in the current study).

Later, following the Cyberball paradigm developed byEisenberger et al. (2003), all of the participants played Cyberballunder the exclusionary condition. Participants were led to a com-puter and asked to help test an online ball-tossing exercise withtwo other participants who were purportedly also participants.The Cyberball program was set for 45 throws, with the computerthe priming effect of losing SNS on experienced distress would bemore prominent for heavy users.

2. Experiment 1: priming with SNS and decreased distress ofsocial exclusion

2.1. Method

2.1.1. Participants and designThe participants were 96 undergraduate Facebook users (40

females, 56 males; mean age = 20.3 years, SD = 1.2 years) in anintroductory psychology class at a national university in southernTaiwan. They received course credits in exchange for participation.The priming conditions were manipulated between subjects.Participants were randomly assigned to each of two experimentalconditions (SNS prime vs. neutral prime). Each condition involved48 participants (20 females and 24 males). Sex proportions wereidentical between conditions.

2.1.2. ProcedureUpon arrival, participants were told to help with several unre-

lated tasks that would be used in future studies. After participantsprovided consent, they were rst instructed to perform a visualvigilance test (a subliminal priming task) following the primingprocedure used by Chartrand and Bargh (1996). Participants weretold that researchers were interested in the speed and accuracyof their response to visual stimuli and that they should indicateon which side of the screen brief ashes of stimuli appeared.Participants then placed their index ngers on two keys: Z and/ to indicate left and right, respectively. After four practice trials,the actual task, which consisted of sixty trials, began. In the SNS-prime condition, the stimulus words were Facebook andGoogle+, with the two words each appearing 30 times in randomorder. These two sites were chosen because they are the two mostpopular SNS among Taiwanese students (e.g., Dong, Cheng, & Wu,2014; Lin & Lu, 2011; Lu & Yang, 2014). In the neutral-prime con-dition, the stimulus words were Neutral and Background, withthe two words each appearing 30 times in random order. Eachstimulus word ashed for 80 ms. Prior priming-based researchhas shown that such briey ashed stimuli can be processed atan unconscious level, and they inuence behavior (e.g., Bargh,Chen, & Burrows, 1996; Fitzsimons, Chartrand, & Fitzsimons,

232 W.-B. Chiou et al. / Computers inone of two keys (Z: upper left-corner player, /: upper right-cor-ner player). Via computer programming, the ball was initiallytossed equally among the three players. After participants receivedon perceived distress was not signicant (from b = 0.35,SE = 0.11, t = 3.10, p = .003, R2 = .09, to b = 0.15, SE = 0.09,t = 1.70, p = .092, R2 = .02; DR2 = .07) when controlling for feltsense of relatedness (M = 2.58, SD = 0.74). A bootstrap analysis(Preacher & Hayes, 2008) showed that the 95% bias-corrected con-dence interval (0.36, 0.07) for the indirect effect (b = 0.20,SE = 0.08; bootstrap resamples = 5000) excluded zero, suggestinga signicant indirect effect (MacKinnon, Fairchild, & Fritz, 2007).Thus, results of the mediation analysis suggest that a felt sense

Table 1Means and standard deviations of perceived distress in Experiment 1.

Prime conditiona Female Male

M SD M SD

SNSb prime 2.25 0.64 2.30 0.63Neutral prime 2.51 0.55 2.71 0.41At the end of this experiment, participants estimated the num-ber of throws they had received as a manipulation check. Each par-ticipant was asked to complete a funnel debrieng form thatprobed for awareness or suspicion concerning our priming manip-ulation. Participants were asked (a) what they thought the purposeof the experiment had been and (b) whether they thought any ofthe different tasks had been related. None of the participants accu-rately described the purpose of the experiment or how the testingtasks and the social exclusion measure were related.

2.2. Results and discussion

The mean reaction time (RT) in the vigilance test was used tocheck whether equivalent groups were actually achieved by ran-dom assignment. There were no signicant differences in the meanRT between the two study groups (MSNS = 9012.93 s, SD = 255.76;Mneutral = 853.79 s, SD = 267.36), t(86) = 0.90, p = .370. With respectto the manipulation check, participants accurately perceived thenumber of throws they had received (M = 4.98, SD = 0.63),t(95) = 1.48, p = .747.

In terms of perceived social distress (M = 2.46, SD = 0.58), par-ticipants responses were submitted to a 2 (prime: SNS vs. neu-tral) 2 (sex; female vs. male) analysis of variance (see Table 1).Participants who received the SNS-prime reported less distress(M = 2.28, SD = 0.63) than the neutral-prime participants(M = 2.63, SD = 0.46), F(1, 92) = 8.667, p = .004, g2 = .09. Accordingto Cohens (1988) suggested fallback benchmarks of effect size, thispriming effect was medium. Female (M = 2.38, SD = 0.59) and male(M = 2.51, SD = 0.56) participants did not differ in perceived dis-tress, F(1, 92) = 1.247, p = .267, and the priming effect did not inter-act with participant sex, F(1, 92) = 0.42, p = .518.

Following Baron and Kenny (1986), we examined whether feltrelatedness would mediate the connection between priming withSNS terms and perceived social distress in the Cyberball game,treating the control condition as the reference group (0 = neutralprime, 1 = SNS prime). Priming with SNS terms predicted the feltsense of relatedness (b = 0.40, SE = 0.15, t = 2.70, p = .008), and feltsense of relatedness predicted perceived distress (b = 0.50,a Each experimental condition involved 20 females and 28 males.b SNS = social networking sites.

male (ve all-male groups) participants. Therefore, proportions of

session consisted of four same-sex participants. The same-sexgroup arrangement was widely adopted in the bogus-feedbackparadigm for inducing social exclusion (e.g., Baumeister et al.,2005; Chiou, Wu, & Lee, 2013; Zhou et al., 2009). Every four partici-pants in each same-sex group discussed getting-acquainted ques-tions for 5 min, and they were then led to separate rooms. Eachperson selected a group member with whom to work on anupcoming dyadic task. The experimenter told each participant thatno one had selected that participant, precluding the participantfrom engaging in the dyad task. Participants then rated their socialdistress on a four-item scale, identical to that of Experiment 1(Cronbachs a = .84 in the current study). Finally, participants weregiven a funnel debrieng in which questions were identical tothose of Experiment 1. Probing showed that none of the partici-pants guessed the real purpose of the experiment.

3.2. Results and discussion

The time spent on SNS per day did not differ between the twostudy groups (Mnon-use = 2.77 h, SD = 0.98; Mneutral = 2.47 h,

Human Behavior 49 (2015) 230236 233same-sex groups in the two study conditions were identical.

3.1.2. ProcedureAfter participants provided consent, they completed a survey

that was ostensibly about online social networking that includedan item about the time spent on SNS per day (in hours; 0 = none;of relatedness mediated the relationship between the SNS-primemanipulation and subsequent perceived social distress (see Fig. 1).

Our rst experiment showed that priming with SNS reduceddistress in response to social exclusion. The ndings suggest thateven subliminal exposure to SNS may buffer perceived distresscaused by social exclusion.

3. Experiment 2: loss of SNS and intensied distress related tosocial exclusion

We proposed that thinking of SNS as a resource for social con-nection would account for its priming effect in attenuating per-ceived distress in response to social exclusion. In the secondexperiment, we examined whether thinking about being unableto access SNS would increase experienced distress using anothersocial-exclusion technique (i.e., the bogus feedback paradigm;Baumeister et al., 2005; Chiou, Wu, & Lee, 2013; Zhou et al., 2009)

3.1. Method

3.1.1. Participants and designEighty-eight Facebook users (48 females, 40 males; mean

age = 22.6 years, SD = 3.1 years) were recruited via campus postersand yers at a national university in southern Taiwan. Academicdisciplines for students were not recorded. Participants were ran-domly assigned to one of two priming conditions (SNS non-usevs. neutral) in this between-subjects design. Every four same-sexparticipants participated in one experimental session. Each experi-mental condition included 24 female (six all-female groups) and 20

SNS primes Perceived social distress

Sense of relatedness

0.13 (p = .092)

0.67 (p = .003)0.27 (p = .008)

0.31 (p < .001)

Fig. 1. The effect of priming with SNS on perceived social distress as mediated byfelt sense of relatedness. Values are standardized regression coefcients. On thelower path, the values below and above the arrow are the results of analyses inwhich the mediator was and was not included in the model, respectively.

W.-B. Chiou et al. / Computers in1 = 01 h; 2 = 12 h; 3 = 23 h; 4 = 34 h; 5 = 45 h; 6 = 5 h andmore). The last question was used to manipulate thoughts aboutlosing SNS access. Participants under the non-use prime conditionwere asked to recall and record three conditions that would renderthem unable to use SNS (e.g., a network adaptor problem, malfunc-tioning cable modem, or problems with Internet service providers).Participants under the neutral condition recalled and recordedthree conditions that would render them unable to log onto thecollege website (e.g., server maintenance, local network or rewallproblems). These recorded conditions were not further analyzed.The recall technique (i.e., the thinking about conditions of loss)was widely employed in priming manipulation (e.g., Zhong &Liljenquist, 2006; Zhong & Leonardelli, 2008; also see Loersch &Payne, 2011 for a related review).

Later, we employed a bogus-feedback paradigm (Baumeisteret al., 2005; Zhou et al., 2009) to induce social exclusion. EachSD = 0.91), t(86) = 1.52, p = .132, suggesting that equivalent groupsappeared to be produced by random assignment. Neither age norsex (0 = female, 1 = male) was associated with perceived distress(rs < .11, ps > .293).

To detect the hypothesized interaction, we standardized thetime spent on SNS per day (M = 2.62 h, SD = 0.95), dummy-codedthe SNS non-use condition as 1 (0 = neutral), and computed aninteraction term by multiplying the two. Following Jaccard, Wan,and Turrisi (1990), we then tested a regression equation predictingperceived distress using condition, time spent on SNS per day, andtheir interaction as predictors. As hypothesized, the main effectwas found (b = 0.34, SE = 0.10), t = 3.57, p < .001, f2 = .11, showingthat participants in the SNS non-use condition perceived greaterdistress (M = 2.81, SD = 0.46) than did participants in the neutralcondition (M = 2.43, SD = 0.48). According to Cohen (1988), themagnitude of the main effect was medium. The interactionbetween SNS use and the experimental condition was also signi-cant (b = 0.22, SE = 0.10), t = 2.25, p = .027, f2 = .04 (see Fig. 2). Thepositive value of the coefcient indicated that the link betweenpriming with SNS non-use and an increase in perceived distresswas stronger as time spent on SNS per day increased. The effectsize of this interaction was small (Cohen, 1988).

Short

Perc

eive

d di

stre

ss

Long

Time spent on SNS per day

2.5

3.0

3.5

2.0

4.0

Neutral

SNS non-useFig. 2. Participants perceived distress as a function of prime condition (SNS non-use or neutral) and the time spent on SNS per day (1 SD above the mean or 1 SDbelow the mean).

Hum4.1. Research limitations and future directions

We admit that our experimental levels were limited to dichot-omized manipulation. The present ndings only representedimmediate effects in a laboratory setting. Caution should be exer-cised when generalizing to naturalistic settings. More importantly,4. General discussion

The popularity of SNS has increased in recent years becausethese sites may provide a low-cost, supplemental means of estab-lishing and maintaining social connections by reaching large audi-ences and increasing the frequency of communication (Chiou &Lee, 2013; Ellison et al., 2007; Haythornthwaite, 2005). Buildingon the social reconnection hypothesis (Maner et al., 2007) whichsuggests a link between social exclusion and the attention paidto potential sources of social connections (e.g., SNS, Lee & Chiou,2013), two priming-based experiments showed that SNS miti-gated social distress by generating a sense of connectedness, andthinking about losing SNS use intensied perceived distress whenbeing socially excluded. The current research demonstrated thatSNS priming was associated with experienced social distress.The link between SNS primes and social distress experiencesemerged across two experimental paradigms for inducing socialexclusion (i.e., the Cyberball and bogus feedback) at the sublimi-nal and conscious level. We may be the rst to provide experi-mental evidence that priming with SNS can interrupt perceiveddistress due to social exclusion. The priming approach offers anew direction for research on how online social networking mayaffect experiences of social distress and social exclusion in theinformation age.

In Experiment 1, our mediation analysis suggests that SNSprimes may produce a temporary boost in felt relatedness andthereby decrease perceived distress resulting from social exclu-sion. These ndings suggest that SNS primes may create anillusionary sense of relatedness that can alter the distress experi-enced in response to social exclusion. They also coincide with theactive-self account for perceptual priming (Wheeler et al., 2007),which posits that the activated self mediates perceptual primingeffects, e.g., wearing counterfeit products can prime participantsto experience a counterfeit self that leads them to judge othersas unethical (Gino, Norton, & Ariely, 2010), and counting moneyhelps buffer the distress of social exclusion by making individualsfeel stronger (Zhou et al., 2009). Our mediation analysis inExperiment 1 indicated that the SNS primes may induce a tempor-ary boost in the relevant active self (i.e., felt sense of relatedness)and thereby generate a buffering effect on social exclusion.

Interestingly, Experiment 2 showed that thinking about theunavailability of SNS increased social exclusion distress. This indi-cates that the loss of SNS access meant losing a potential means ofacquiring social connections. Moreover, results showing that theexperimental effects were stronger for users who spent more timeon SNS revealed the moderating role of SNS use intensity. Theseresults suggest that heavy users may be more vulnerable to theloss of social networking when experiencing social exclusion.Our second experiment provided further conrmation that theimpact of thinking about SNS reects its value as a source of socialconnection, in that thinking about losing SNS use intensied per-ceived distress when experiencing social exclusion. The results alsosuggest that high-intensity SNS users may suffer this detrimentaleffect to a greater degree.

234 W.-B. Chiou et al. / Computers inpriming effects are short-terms changes which are induced by non-conscious activation of prime-related mental content (Bargh, 2006;Loersch & Payne, 2011). Hence, there is a limitation of the primingparadigm by its failure to detect the long-term effects of SNSprimes on the increase/decrease of social distress due to socialexclusion. For the bogus-feedback paradigm in Experiment 2,social exclusion was induced in same-sex groups. This arrange-ment is usually employed to ensure that every participant receivesexclusionary information from same-sex others, which may con-trol for the potential confounding effect of sex in mixed-sexgroups. However, we acknowledge that the same-sex grouparrangement was a limitation for inducing social exclusion.Participants in both experiments were SNS student users and wererecruited from a university in Taiwan. The generalizability of thepresent ndings is therefore limited. Additionally, both the meanRT in the vigilance test of Study 1 and the time spent on SNS perday of Study 2 did not differ between the experimental conditions.It is still a limitation that random assignment is not always possi-ble to produce equivalent groups that are equivalent on any num-ber of potentially important subject factors.

With regard to future research directions, the social reconnec-tion hypothesis suggests that ostracized individuals may increasethe attention paid to potential sources of connection (Maneret al., 2007). Additional research on the longitudinal relationshipbetween social exclusion and SNS use is necessary. Although ourtwo experiments demonstrate the association between SNS (theloss of SNS) and reduced (increased) distress in response to socialexclusion, we suspect that this relationship is not invariant.Besides the moderating role of intensity use of SNS founded inExperiment 2, one important moderator might be the need forafliation (or belonging). Evolutionary perspectives on fundamen-tal human needs suggest that individuals with higher afliationmotivation are inclined to increase their attention to sources thatprovide social connections (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Buss,1991). Park, Jin, and Jin (2011) found that the need for afliationwas positively associated with the motivations for relationshipmaintenance and initiation in Facebook. Lee and Chiou (2013)showed that priming with afliation motivation would induceusers to think about SNS. Therefore, future research may testwhether the link between SNS primes and perceived distress ofsocial exclusion would be stronger for individuals with highafliation motivation. In regard to cultural differences, Hofstede(1980) proposed that each society may have a culture that canbe characterized as either individualistic (e.g., America,Australia) or collectivistic (e.g., China, India, Taiwan). Whetherthe priming effect of SNS on the distress of social exclusion wouldbe more prominent in societies with the culture of relatedness(i.e., a collectivistic culture; Kagitcibasi, 2005) is worthy ofinvestigation.

4.2. Conclusions

Social exclusion can impair an individuals psychological andphysiological well-being (Diener & Seligman, 2002; Williams,2007). Human beings everywhere are using online social network-ing to facilitate social connections (Boyd & Ellison, 2007; Quan-Haase, Wellman, & Witte, 2002). SNS may not only change howsocial interaction occurs but also fundamentally alter the way ofexperiencing and coping with social exclusion. What we can inferfrom our studies, however, is that thinking about the availabilityof online social networking may alleviate the perceived distressrelated to social exclusion, but considering its potential unavail-ability may heighten the distress of social exclusion. The demon-strated link between the idea of SNS (losing SNS use) anddecreased (increased) distress owing to social exclusion revealsthe importance of SNS as a potential means for acquiring and

an Behavior 49 (2015) 230236rebuilding social connections. Use of online social networkingappears to be a double-edged sword for coping with social exclu-sion in our e-society.

HumAcknowledgments

This research was partially supported by the Ministry of Scienceand Technology (contract No. MOST 103-2628-H-110-002-MY2).Dr. Wen-Bin Chiou would also like to acknowledge the supportreceived from Aim for the Top University Plan of the NationalSun Yat-sen University and Ministry of Education, Taiwan,Republic of China.

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Facebook effects on social distress: Priming with online social networking thoughts can alter the perceived distress due to social exclusion1 Introduction2 Experiment 1: priming with SNS and decreased distress of social exclusion2.1 Method2.1.1 Participants and design2.1.2 Procedure

2.2 Results and discussion

3 Experiment 2: loss of SNS and intensified distress related to social exclusion3.1 Method3.1.1 Participants and design3.1.2 Procedure

3.2 Results and discussion

4 General discussion4.1 Research limitations and future directions4.2 Conclusions

AcknowledgmentsReferences