Social exclusion reduces happiness by creating expectations of future rejection

ABSTRACT

Social exclusion reduces happiness and well-being partly by creating a generalized expectation of future rejection and lack of belonging. An experiment (N = 709) using a guided imagination task found that social exclusion led to reduced feelings of happiness. The effect was mediated by future expectations, as participants who imagined a vivid exclusion scenario thought they were more likely to experience actual rejection in the coming weeks. A correlational survey focusing on individual differences found a similar pattern. People who felt a strong sense of general belonging thought they were less likely to experience future rejection than people with weak belonging, and they also reported higher levels of current happiness.

KEYWORDS:

• Social exclusion
• happiness
• well-being
• prospection
• need to belong

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was partly supported by the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence Scheme, FAIR project no 262675.