Social Rejection and Views of the Self

The purpose of this article is to differentiate the factors that affect one’s view of themselves post-rejection within a social situation. According to past research, self-esteem is negatively affected after experiencing social rejection and these effects appear to be amplified when the subject is exposed to repeated social rejections. We hypothesized that social rejection can lead individuals to perceive the self as having fewer positive qualities. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a between-subjects study through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Subjects were instructed to take the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and then were randomly assigned to either a rejection or acceptance condition in Cyberball, a pre-programmed online ball-tossing game in which participants are included or excluded throughout the game. Next, subjects selected 10 characteristics that would best describe them. A multiple regression indicated that self-esteem moderated the effects of social rejection on positive self-perceptions. Rejected individuals low in self-esteem described themselves in a less positive manner than accepted individuals. However, individuals high in self-esteem were unaffected by the rejection manipulation. The results suggest that low self-esteem may make individuals more vulnerable to the negative effects of rejection and that researchers should consider the ways in which rejection impacts specific self-perceptions beyond general self-esteem.