The Need to Belong and Motivated Gratitude: Social Exclusion Increases Gratitude Among People Low in a Sense of Psychological Entitlement

• Other Authors: Mackenzie, Michael J. (authoraut)
• Format: Others
• Language: English; English
• Published: Florida State University
• Subjects: Psychology
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_2015fall_MacKenzie_fsu_0071N_12854

Recent research has demonstrated that social exclusion can increase the motivation to develop new affiliative bonds with others. The primary goal of the paper was to examine the effect that social exclusion would have on gratitude toward a novel person. An additional goal was to test how social acceptance would influence gratitude toward a novel other. Across two studies, social exclusion increased self-reported gratitude for a small gift among people low in a sense of entitlement compared to those in a control condition. Social exclusion also increased perception of the benefactor's interpersonal warmth among less entitled participants. Perception of the benefactor's warmth mediated the increase in gratitude among low entitlement participants in both studies. Additionally, socially excluded low entitlement participants were perceived as being more grateful in hand written thank-you notes compared to nonexcluded participants (Study 2). These findings suggest that, upon feeling socially excluded, people low in entitlement had a heightened motivation for social affiliation that led them to overperceive warm intentions in the benefactor. The overperception of warmth is what caused gratitude to increase among socially excluded low entitlement people. Social acceptance increased gratitude compared to control conditions and was not moderated by psychological entitlement. Unexpectedly, social acceptance also increased the perceived value of the benefit. The heightened perception of gift value was found to mediate the increase in gratitude in both studies. === A Thesis submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. === Fall Semester 2015. === October 22, 2015. === Includes bibliographical references. === Roy F. Baumeister, Professor Directing Thesis; Paul Conway, Committee Member; Wen Li, Committee Member.