关键词: 社会排斥, 被拒绝, 被忽略, 求助行为意愿

Abstract: People encounter various problems in everyday life, and it is quite common that no one can solve all problems alone. In most cases, seeking help from others in the face of difficulties may be a better choice than depending on oneself, which can save much time and energy. Though a lot of prior research has examined the antecedents of help-seeking behavior, whether social exclusion may exert an impact on help seeking remains a hitherto unaddressed research question. Since social exclusion is a very pervasive phenomenon and help seeking is highly correlated with individuals’ subjective wellbeing, it is of great significance to investigate the causal relationship between social exclusion and help-seeking behavior. According to prior literature, asking for help in difficulties offers people a chance to build social connections with others, satisfying their need for social belongingness. However, seeking help from others also signals dependency and low self-efficacy, threatening help seekers’ sense of control. In addition, extant research on social exclusion has indicated that being ignored threatens need for control and meaningful existence, while being rejected threatens need for belongingness and self-esteem. Building on this, the current research proposes that different types of social exclusion have differential impacts on help-seeking intentions. Specifically, being rejected (vs. ignored) makes people more likely to seek help from others in subsequent difficulties, and this effect is mediated by need for belongingness. However, being ignored (vs. rejected) motivates people to avoid help seeking when they encounter problems in subsequent contexts, and this effect is mediated by need for control. Two studies were conducted to test the assumptions. Study 1 was designed to provide preliminary evidence for the effect of different types of social exclusion on help-seeking intentions. A total of 92 participants recruited from MTurk were randomly assigned to a one factor (types of social exclusion: being ignored vs. being rejected) between-subjects design. Different types of social exclusion were manipulated by asking participants to recall and write about experiences when they were explicitly ignored or rejected. Help-seeking intentions were measured by employing a difficult IQ test. Results showed that being rejected leads to higher help-seeking intentions than being ignored, supporting H1. Study 2 aims to examine the psychological mechanism underlying the effect of different types of social exclusion on help-seeking intentions. A total of 134 Chinese adults recruited from an online survey platform were randomly assigned to a one factor (types of social exclusion: being ignored vs. being rejected) between-subjects design. The same procedure as Study 1 was employed to manipulate different types of social exclusion. Need for belongingness and need for control were then measured. Afterwards, a furniture assembly task was used to measure help-seeking intentions. Results of a parallel mediation analysis suggested that both need for belongingness and need for control mediate the effect of different types of social exclusion on help-seeking intentions, supporting H2 and H3. Moreover, mood, self-esteem and meaningful existence were excluded as alternative explanations, enhancing the robustness of the aforementioned mediation effects. In conclusion, the current research not only documents the influence of different types of social exclusion on help-seeking intentions, but also reveals its underlying mechanism. The findings of this research shed new light on the antecedents of help seeking by validating the differential effects of being ignored and being rejected. Also, this paper contributes to extant social exclusion research by taking the perspective of the need-threat model and investigating a novel downstream consequence, i.e. help-seeking behavior.

Key words: social exclusion, being rejected, being ignored, help-seeking intentions