Touching a Teddy Bear Mitigates the Negative Effects of Social Exclusion

• Main Authors: Tai, Kenneth, Zheng, Xue, Narayanan, Jayanth
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2011
• Subjects: social exclusion; touch; pro-social behavior; dictator game; Organizational Behavior and Theory; Social Psychology
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/3546; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/4545/viewcontent/TaiNarayan2011SPPSTeddyBear_AFV.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

There is little empirical research to date that looks at how the deleterious effects of social exclusion can be mitigated. We examined how touching an inanimate object—a teddy bear—might impact the effect of social exclusion on prosocial behavior. Across two studies, we found that socially excluded...