Subliminally primed social exclusion's effect on reaffiliation behaviors.

Abstract

The need to belong is as innate as our need for food or water (Maslow, 1943). When that need is threatened, people strive to reaffiliate with desired ingroups. They may act in uncharacteristic ways, or purchase items they would not normally purchase to appear more like the desired ingroup. In the present study, participants were subliminally primed with stimuli pilot-tested for social exclusion. The purpose of this research was to determine if subliminally-primed social exlcusion affects participants' reaffiliation efforts within an ingroup. Participants watched a slideshow with pictures of Oklahoma City and Tulsa landmarks. Participants in the experimental conditions viewed another slideshow subliminally priming social exclusion with either pictures or words. Participants were told that they had {dollar}300 in fake money to donate to fictional charities based in Oklahoma City or Tulsa. The dependent variables were numbers of charities from each city donated to and amount of money donated to charities from each city. The researcher's hypothesis was not supported, but an examination of the means seem to indicate a small effect of the primes. A second study was conducted to gather additional information from the population, such as empathy, need to belong, and attitude toward giving to charities.