Think of that time your friends had an outing but didn’t invite you. It stung, didn’t it? Well, this pain is in fact not peculiar to you. You see, while the intensity may vary depending on the individual, every human is born with an inherent desire to seek a sense of belonging and connection. But here’s the interesting twist, new research has shown that for women, the pain of being excluded is not just dependent on the act itself but on the person who actually does it. A recent study published in the journal, Scientific Reports aimed to understand women’s behavioral and neural responses when they are excluded by other women.
How Was This Research Carried Out?
For this study, the researchers recruited 87 undergraduate women aged 18-22 years from the University of Ottawa. However, due to problems with EEG recordings, the number of women who finally participated in the study was 83.
Prior to the study, the participants were told that they would be taking part in a two-phase study that aimed to examine how the brains of young adults react when competing against one another. Once written consent was obtained, the women were randomly grouped into four groups. The four groups included:
1. (a) Attractive friendly (AF)
2. (b) Attractive unfriendly (AU)
3. (c) Unattractive friendly (UF)
4. (d) Unattractive unfriendly (UU)
Depending on the group they found themselves in, the participants would eventually play a game where they would be excluded by different types of competitors. Hence participants in the AF group would eventually be excluded by 2 virtual players who were both attractive and friendly. However, it is important to note that the participants were actually made to believe that they were competing against players in a different location. Hence to make this statement more believable, the researchers also took photographs of each participant.
In the first part of the study, the participants were asked to complete an online questionnaire that aimed to understand their sensitivity to rejection. In the second part, they were engaged in the social competition while their EEG data were recorded.
For the competition, the participants were shown photographs of five different women and asked to pick two out of these women they would like to play an online game against. These pictures were obtained from a database containing pictures of women that were (a) attractive and friendly, (b) attractive and unfriendly (c) unattractive and friendly, and (d) unattractive and unfriendly. After the women were done selecting, the researchers intentionally caused the women’s computers to crash and pretended to fix them. However, when the system came back on, they made sure that only two players were available to play with. The available players were dependent on the groups the women were initially paired to compete in. These were the women the participants eventually played with.
During the game “Cyberball,” participants would occasionally receive the ball from the virtual players. In those times when the participants did not receive the ball from these virtual players, the virtual players played between themselves excluding the participant. Now based on the game’s programming, the number of times the participants received the ball progressively reduced as the game progressed.
A Woman Has a Higher Chance of Being Selected by Another Women if She Is Attractive
An important finding of the first part of the study was the fact that in a competition, participants were more likely to pick attractive over unattractive women. When attractive competitors were presented as unfriendly, the White unfriendly attractive woman had a higher chance over attractive friendly black (an exception) women of getting picked. This implies that a woman who is beautiful is more likely to get picked by another woman in a competition and even when she is depicted as unfriendly, her chance of getting picked is still pretty high if she is White. It is important to note that the results of this study actually align with a popular stereotype that “what is beautiful is good.” Hence in a competition, a woman who is perceived to be pretty by her fellow woman has a higher chance of getting picked by that woman than another who is perceived to be less beautiful.
Women Were Most Hurt When They Were Excluded by Unattractive Women
During the game, the researchers observed that based on the EEG readings as well as their facial expressions, women were most hurt when they were excluded from playing by women who were unattractive. They noted that the feeling of rejection worsened if the attractive women excluding them from the game were also unfriendly. The researchers theorized that this reaction may arise from the perceived fear or threat to self-esteem that a person perceives when they are excluded by someone they consider socially inferior. It is important to note that prior to the study, the researchers had a contrasting hypothesis: a woman is likely to feel more hurt when she is excluded by another woman who is attractive and unfriendly. To justify this initial prediction, one of the researchers explained that a woman of high social status should be able to inflict more harm on a woman of lower social status.
Conclusion
The average human being is intrinsically wired to be social, to seek to interact with fellow human beings, and to seek validation from these interactions. Two key takeaways from this study include the fact that: (a) Women are more likely to want to hang around other women they consider physically attractive (b) A woman will feel more hurt if another woman she considers physically unattractive excludes her from an activity. However, it is important to note that while the study provides more clarity to a crucial aspect of the human psyche, it is not without limitations. These limitations may limit the possibility of applying the results generally. For instance, because the study exclusively involved women, its results may not be applicable to men. Furthermore, even among women, the results may not be applicable to women older than those who were involved in the study. Consequently, there is a need for future research aimed at bridging this gap.
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