Whether Members Can Send Text Messages

When the participants arrived at the laboratory, they were taken to a room where there were three seats arranged in a triangular formation, 60 cm apart. The third seat belonged to the experimenter. After providing consent, participants completed a questionnaire that assessed demographic and personal habit information.Once that was finished, the texting began. They were told they would begin by answering two questions supplied by the experimenter (one of which constituted the in-group/outgroup manipulation), after which they were to maintain the interaction until the experimenter told them to stop.

To check that participants knew how to send text messages, they were asked them to send the letter “A” to each other. If the participants could perform this task, the experiment proceeded. After it was determined that the participants could send and receive text messages the experimenter sent a question to distract the participants.

This question the experimenter asked was based off the questionnaire that the participants filled out and was answered by a confederate who made the participants feel like they had something in common.

The participants were told to come up with their own text messages. Based off the random in and out group manipulation, participants were either excluded or included from messaging for eight minutes. If participants were selected to be included, then the confederates responded to them for the next eight minutes, whereas confederates did not respond to anyone’s messages in the exclusion group. To make sure that this experiment remained ethical, all participants provided consent and at any given time, if participants discovered the true reason of the study then they would be removed from the room.

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Participants Forty-three psychology undergraduates from Macquarie University who were familiar with text messaging were selected and given course credit for their participation.

Twenty-seven out of the forty-three participants were female, while the other sixteen were male. There average age of these participants was 19.76. I don’t know if the number of participants in each gender was related to what the experimenters wanted to portray or if there was less male psychology undergraduates at this university. Assessments and Measures Ostracism is defined as being deliberately left out of a group or social setting by exclusion and rejection. Although social rejection is an inevitable part of human existence, prolonged or unreasonable ostracism can lead to loneliness, depression, or aggression. The goal of this experiment was to prove that ostracism has a powerful and negative effect on individuals being excluded. The authors, Anita Smith and Kipling D. Williams wanted to test whether alienation is adequate to cause mental agony.

These 43 participants were being used to demonstrate that ostracism can lead to a variety of emotions such as sadness or anger. The independent variable in this experiment was the in and out group manipulation, and who received certain messages. This dependent variable was the negative effects that ostracism leaves behind. This was measured in the reactions and emotions of people when they discovered that they were being left out if or if they felt that they weren’t being included. This was also measured through standard deviation of variables such as manipulation check, fundamental needs, and affective measures (mood). Results This experiment helped to show that along with nourishment and care, people need to feel like they belong. Four fundamental needs in life are belonging, control, self-esteem, and meaningful existence. This experiment concluded that ostracism is a hard pill to swallow, whether it happens in person or if it’s over some form of technology or social media. The evolution of humans just show that we act negatively to ostracism because we want to be reincluded.

Ostracism poses a threat to our survival so we react in a way that will help us cope with the truth. I think that the content or topic of a text message will impact how interested or how likely a person will want to respond to a topic. Some of these college students may find smoking to be something that they want to respond to whereas other students may think that it’s the dumbest topic to discuss. When I first read this study I didn’t know how to feel. The first thing that came to my mind was ostracism is still a part of today’s society. In this experiment, this study didn’t leave long lasting effects. I think that if this experiment was replicated in today’s age that would not be the case. Someone could claim that they’re suicidal or fall into a deep depression.

I found this article so interesting because I feel that ostracism is very apparent in schools around the country. I know that people are excluded from different social or friend groups just on the way they act or dress. I have also found myself guilty of ostracizing others, when it comes to whether or not I add someone to a group chat based on how toxic they can be. My biggest takeaway from this article is the evolutionary aspect that this experiment presented me with. Humans act and respond in certain ways for survival purposes and because inclusion is important in developing how people view the world. This article isn’t going to change something in my life overnight, but I think it opened my eyes to realize how people may react if they feel like they aren’t needed or don’t belong.