How the fear of negative evaluation affects one’s stress experience when socially excluded

Abstract

Anxieties surrounding negative judgements being made about oneself may be a significant reason as to why people feel stressed when being faced with social exclusion. In this study, we explore how the fear of negative judgment relates to feelings of stress when an individual is socially excluded. We predict that individuals with a more intense fear of negative judgment will experience higher stress levels when socially excluded. We tested this by socially excluding 27 female participants, individually, from a short conversation with two confederates. Following a self-report survey, the data was analyzed. Using a Pearson's R correlation, we were unable to locate a correlation between individuals who have a high fear of negative evaluation and their experience of stress during social exclusion. It is possible that this lack of significance is due to the small sample size of this research. In addition, participants may have not wanted to reveal how stressed they truly were during the interaction. Future research ought to aim for a high sample size of this research. In addition, future studies may want to examine possible gender differences in this research.