This project examined whether people cope with social rejection by socially isolating and using the internet, and whether individuals' attachment security would make a difference. 500 participants were invited from CloudResearch Connect to complete a Qualtrics survey. They first filled out a measure assessing their attachment avoidance and anxiety. They then played a round of Cyberball, a virtual ball-tossing game. In this game, they either had the ball regularly passed to them, or had the ball only passed to them twice near the beginning of the game (rejection condition). Afterwards, they filled out measures assessing their levels of avoidance coping, and their immediate desire to socially isolate and use the internet. We hypothesized that those who had been socially ostracized would employ an avoidance coping strategy, which would lead to internet usage and social isolation, especially if they were higher in attachment avoidance, and potentially attachment anxiety. We found that, facing social rejection, individuals were more likely to want to avoid their problems, and, in turn, to want to socially withdraw and use the internet. This was true regardless of attachment anxiety or avoidance. The presentation will discuss the implications, limitations, and future directions of this research.
Acknowledgements: We thank Psi Chi for sponsoring our project.