Effect of Rejection Sensitivity on the selective attention following ambiguous rejections

アイダ, ナオキ

Aida, Naoki

礒部, 智加衣

イソベ, チカエ

Isobe, Chikae

オオサカ ダイガク ダイガクイン ニンゲン カガク ケンキュウカ タイジン シャカイ シンリガク ケンキュウシツ

拒絶感受性

選択的注意

ドットプロープ課題

rejection

rejection sensitivity

selective attention

dot-probe task

It has been demonstrated that after an experience of being rejected, individuals pay increased attention to smiles, because of their fundamental need to belong (DeWall et al., 2009). Other research suggests that people with high rejection sensitivity tend to avoid attending faces showing rejection (Berenson et al., 2009). Rejection sensitivity is the disposition to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and intensely react to experiences of being rejected. Do rejection sensitive people also attend to a smile after experiencing an ambiguous rejection? In this study, we use the dot-probe task and examined the following predictions after an ambiguous rejection: highly rejection sensitive people would pay attention to (i) a smiling face, or (ii) disgust face. Contrary to these predictions, results indicated that in control condition, in which there was no rejection, highly rejection sensitive people highly attended only to the disgust faces. On the other hand, in the ambiguous rejection condition, selective attention was not affected by rejection sensitivity. We have discussed the relationship between rejection sensitivity and inappropriate reactions.

礒部, 智加衣