# Effects of social exclusion on following the gaze of others

## TL;DR

This study explores how social exclusion affects attention to others' gaze, finding that excluded individuals are more attentive to neutral faces of those who excluded them.

## Contribution

The study introduces a novel approach to understanding gaze cueing effects in the context of social exclusion and inclusion.

## Key findings

- Excluded individuals showed stronger gaze cueing effects for neutral faces of excluders.
- There was no significant gaze cueing for novel faces with happy or neutral expressions.
- Socially excluded individuals displayed a dual attentional strategy of vigilance and openness.

## Abstract

Evidence shows that social exclusion motivates to paying attention to the situation to reconnect with others or to protect oneself from further exclusion. However, it is unclear how social attention is affected by who offers an opportunity to reconnect. Two studies filled this gap by assessing whether being excluded affects our propensity to share attention with another individual (seen or novel) with a happy or a neutral expression. Findings show a significant three‐way interaction with differences in gaze cueing between groups only for seen faces with a neutral expression. Gaze‐cueing effects for seen (excluders) faces with a neutral expression occurred in 73% of socially excluded individuals – this was 33% for seen (includers) faces for socially included. There were no differences in gaze cueing for novel faces with happy or neutral expressions. In Study 2, social information about faces was learned without direct exclusion. Here, the proportion of participants showing the effect observed in Study 1 and the associations between gaze cueing and emotional expressions differed. In line with the social monitoring system theory, individuals in the immediate aftermath of exclusion remain socially engaged, displaying a dual attentional strategy: vigilance towards the excluder and openness to affiliative signals from novel others.