What to say when they won't let you play? The effectiveness of cognitive reappraisal on social exclusion

Abstract

This study explores the effects of cognitive reappraisal in the context of ostracism. We argue that this emotion regulation strategy is mediated by language, as it involves formulating a reinterpretation of an emotional situation. We investigated the effects of reappraisals with different linguistic contents on the experience of social exclusion in a virtual ball game. Emotional responding of forty participants was compared in four conditions, in which they were given 1) a reappraisal with a positive content, 2) a reappraisal with a negative content, 3) a non-emotional linguistic load or 4) no specific instruction. A significant result was found for the participants’ judgement of the other players in the game: the excluders were rated less friendly in the negative reappraisal condition and the no-instruction condition. We conclude that linguistic content influences the effectiveness of cognitive reappraisal: a reappraisal with a non-negative (i.e. neutral or positive) content is more advantageous for the relationship with the excluders than a negative reappraisal.