The Consequences of Social Exclusion on SelfRegulation of Unhealthy Eating Behavior

RM 218

The self-evaluation maintenance model (SEM; Pleban & Tesser, 1981) predicts that social exclusion will be more detrimental to self-regulation when it is due to individual characteristics (e.g., personal ability). In contrast, social identity theory (SIT; Tajfel & Turner, 1986) predicts that social exclusion will impair self-regulation more when it is due to group membership (e.g., ethnicity or gender). Although these two theories appear contradictory concerning their prediction for social exclusion, we maintain they are complementary and depend on whether or not the exclusion is deserved, or fair. We argue social exclusion will be more detrimental when individuals are fairly excluded based on their individual characteristics (SEM) or unfairly excluded based on their group membership (SIT). We are recruiting Latina participants at CSU San Bernardino to participate in an online game called “CSUSB Survivor”. Participants experience a situation that simulates fair or unfair social exclusion based on either individual characteristics or group membership. Participants play two rounds of the game before they are excluded. After being excluded from continuing the game, participants are asked to rate different recipes of M&Ms on several dimensions such as crunchiness and sweetness. M&M consumption is measured in grams to determine participant’s level of self-regulation over high caloric food. A 2 (fair versus unfair) x 2 (individual versus group) ANOVA will be used to analyze results. Support of our hypotheses will suggest that both fairness and type of social exclusion are significant factors in determining the impact of rejection on people’s ability to self-regulate.