Social rejection increases perspective taking

Rejection Distress Suppresses Medial Prefrontal Cortex in Borderline Personality Disorder

BACKGROUND

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by an elevated distress response to social exclusion (i.e., rejection distress), the neural mechanisms of which remain unclear. Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies of social exclusion have relied on the classic version of the Cyberball task, which is not optimized for functional magnetic resonance imaging. Our goal was to clarify the neural substrates of rejection distress in BPD using a modified version of Cyberball, which allowed us to dissociate the neural response to exclusion events from its modulation by exclusionary context.

METHODS

Twenty-three women with BPD and 22 healthy control participants completed a novel functional magnetic resonance imaging modification of Cyberball with 5 runs of varying exclusion probability and rated their rejection distress after each run. We tested group differences in the whole-brain response to exclusion events and in the parametric modulation of that response by rejection distress using mass univariate analysis.

RESULTS

Although rejection distress was higher in participants with BPD (F1,40 = 5.25, p = .027, η2 = 0.12), both groups showed similar neural responses to exclusion events. However, as rejection distress increased, the rostromedial prefrontal cortex response to exclusion events decreased in the BPD group but not in control participants. Stronger modulation of the rostromedial prefrontal cortex response by rejection distress was associated with higher trait rejection expectation, r = -0.30, p = .050.

CONCLUSIONS

Heightened rejection distress in BPD might stem from a failure to maintain or upregulate the activity of the rostromedial prefrontal cortex, a key node of the mentalization network. Inverse coupling between rejection distress and mentalization-related brain activity might contribute to heightened rejection expectation in BPD.

How We Understand Others: A Theory of How Social Perspective Taking Unfolds

Social perspective taking—the process through which perceivers discern the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of a target—is foundational for navigating social interactions, building relationships, maintaining mental health, promoting well-being, and a wide array of other desired outcomes. Despite its importance, little is known about how discrete social perspective taking attempts unfold. We propose a theory that the social perspective taking process consists of up to four distinguishable phases: perception of the target, motivation to engage in social perspective taking, strategy selection, and evaluation of the attempt. Scholars have emphasized two proximal outcomes of this process—social perspective taking effort and accuracy. We review the literature in support of these phases, noting the relative maturity of each area of research. In doing so, we hope this theory provides a framework for contextualizing how existing studies relate to one another across different subfields of psychology, facilitates testable predictions, prioritizes future investigations, and guides applied research designed to improve real-world social perspective taking.

Would victims blame victims? Effects of ostracism, sexual objectification, and empathy on victim blaming

In the current research, we examined whether ostracism and sexual objectification affect the tendency to blame the victim of sexual harassment. Previous research concerning victim blame examined the attribution of blame considering the characteristics of the victim, the perpetrator, and the relation between them. However, no research to date examined whether situational factors of the perceiver can affect their perception and judgment of blame. We propose that sexual objectification and ostracism may elicit empathy toward the victim, and in turn, reduce victim blame. In two experimental studies, women were instructed to imagine interacting with a videotaped man who either gazed at their body (objectification), away from them (ostracism), or at their face (treated well). Then, they were asked to read a newspaper article (study 1) or watch a video (study 2) portraying encounters in which the man's sexual advances continued after the woman expressed discomfort and lack of interest. In study 1, we found that sexually objectified women attributed less blame to the woman compared with the women who were treated well, with ostracized women falling in between and marginally different from both. In study 2, using mediation analysis we found an indirect effect such that sexually objectified women experienced greater empathy toward the victim, which was associated with reduced attribution of blame. It appears that greater similarity between the situation of the perceiver and the situation of the victim elicits greater empathy. This adds to the previous knowledge that personality similarities result in higher empathy.

Connection Heals Wounds: Feeling Listened to Reduces Speakers' Loneliness Following a Social Rejection Disclosure

Memories of rejection contribute to feeling lonely. However, high-quality listening that conveys well-meaning attention and understanding when speakers discuss social rejection may help them to reconnect. Speakers may experience less loneliness because they feel close and connected (relatedness) to the listener and because listening supports self-congruent expression (autonomy). Five experiments (total N = 1,643) manipulated listening during visualized (Studies 1, 4, 5) and actual (Studies 2, 3) conversations. We used different methods (video vignettes; in-person; computer-mediated; recall; written scenarios) to compare high-quality with regular (all studies) and poor (Study 1) listening. Findings across studies showed that high-quality listening reduced speakers' state loneliness after they shared past experiences of social rejection. Parallel mediation analyses indicated that both feeling related to the listener and autonomy satisfaction (particularly its self-congruence component; Study 5) mediated the effect of listening on loneliness. These results provide novel insights into the hitherto unexplored effect of listening on state loneliness.

Perspectives Organize Information in Mind and Nature: Empirical Findings of Point-View Perspective (P) in Cognitive and Material Complexity

The importance of perspective-taking crosses disciplines and is foundational to diverse phenomena such as point-of-view, scale, mindset, theory of mind, opinion, belief, empathy, compassion, analysis, and problem solving, etc. This publication gives predictions for and a formal description of point-view Perspectives (P) or the “P-rule”. This makes the P-rule foundational to systems, systems thinking and the consilience of knowledge. It is one of four universals of the organization of information as a whole. This paper presents nine empirical studies in which subjects were asked to complete a task and/or answer a question. The samples vary for each study (ranging from N = 407 to N = 34,398) and are generalizable to a normal distribution of the US population. As was evident in Cabrera, “These studies support—with high statistical significance—the predictions made by DSRP Theory (Distinctions, Systems Relationships, Perspectives) point-view Perspectives including its: universality as an observable phenomenon in both mind (cognitive complexity) and nature (material complexity) (i.e., parallelism); internal structures and dynamics; mutual dependencies on other universals (i.e., Distinctions, Systems, and Relationships); role in structural predictions; and, efficacy as a metacognitive skill”. These data suggest that point-view Perspectives (P) observably and empirically exist, and that universality, efficacy, and parallelism (between cognitive and material complexity) exist as well. The impact of this paper is that it provides empirical evidence for the phenomena of point-view perspective taking (“P-rule”) as a universal pattern/structure of systems thinking, a field in which scholarly debate is often based on invalidated opinioned frameworks; this sets the stage for theory building in the field.

Does Cyberostracism Reduce Prosocial Behaviors? The Protective Role of Psychological Resilience

To reduce the negative consequences of cyberostracism on prosocial behaviors, we developed a coping strategy based on psychological resilience, and revealed its effectiveness in combating the adverse effects of cyberostracism on prosocial behavior through two studies. Study 1 demonstrated that psychological resilience could mitigate the negative impact of cyberostracism on prosocial behaviors through experimental manipulation. By targeting continuously ostracized people with low resilience for an online self-help resilience intervention program, Study 2 confirmed that psychological resilience was effective in alleviating the detrimental effects of cyberostracism. These studies not only help us to recognize the negative effects of cyberostracism, but also extend Williams’ temporal need–threat model of ostracism in the context of online ostracism. As emerging technologies represent a promising new approach to intervention delivery, the most valuable contribution of this study is that we developed an online self-help psychological resilience intervention program that showed encouraging therapeutic effects and advantages for assisting in caring for a larger population of people who are at elevated risk for being cyberostracized.

The “Fish Tank” Experiments: Metacognitive Awareness of Distinctions, Systems, Relationships, and Perspectives (DSRP) Significantly Increases Cognitive Complexity

In the field of systems thinking, there are far too many opinioned frameworks and far too few empirical studies. This could be described as a “gap” in the research but it is more like a dearth in the research. More theory and empirical validation of theory are needed if the field and the phenomenon of systems thinking holds promise and not just popularity. This validation comes in the form of both basic (existential) and applied (efficacy) research studies. This article presents efficacy data for a set of empirical studies of DSRP Theory. According to Cabrera, Cabrera, and Midgley, DSRP Theory has equal or more empirical evidence supporting it than any existing systems theories (including frameworks, which are not theories). Four separate studies show highly statistically relevant findings for the effect of a short (less than one minute) treatment of D, S, R, and P. Subjects’ cognitive complexity and the systemic nature of their thinking increased in all four studies. These findings indicate that even a short treatment in DSRP is effective in increasing systems thinking skills. Based on these results, a longer, more in-depth treatment—such as a one hour or semester long training, such is the norm—would therefore likely garner transformative results and efficacy.

DSRP Theory: A Primer

DSRP Theory is now over 25 years old with more empirical evidence supporting it than any other systems thinking framework. Yet, it is often misunderstood and described in ways that are inaccurate. DSRP Theory describes four patterns and their underlying elements—identity (i) and other (o) for Distinctions (D), part (p) and whole (w) for Systems (S), action (a) and reaction (r) for Relationships (R), and point (ρ) and view (v) for Perspectives (P)—that are universal in both cognitive complexity (mind) and material complexity (nature). DSRP Theory provides a basis for systems thinking or cognitive complexity as well as material complexity (systems science). This paper, as a relatively short primer on the theory, provides clarity to those wanting to understand DSRP and its implications.

Prefrontal tDCS Attenuates Self-Referential Attentional Deployment: A Mechanism Underlying Adaptive Emotional Reactivity to Social-Evaluative Threat

Social-evaluative threat (SET) - a situation in which one could be negatively evaluated by others - elicits profound (psycho)physiological reactivity which, if chronically present and not adaptively regulated, has deleterious effects on mental and physical health. Decreased self-awareness and increased other-awareness are understood to be an adaptive response to SET. Attentional deployment - the process of selectively attending to certain aspects of emotional stimuli to modulate emotional reactivity - is supported by fronto-parietal and fronto-limbic networks, with the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex being a central hub. The primary aim of the current study was to investigate the effects of active (versus sham) prefrontal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on self and other-attentional deployment during the exposure to a SET context. Seventy-four female participants received active or sham tDCS and were subsequently exposed to a rigged social feedback paradigm. In this paradigm a series of social evaluations were presented together with a photograph of the supposed evaluator and a self- photograph of the participant, while gaze behavior (time to first fixation, total fixation time) and skin conductance responses (SCRs; a marker of emotional reactivity) were measured. For half of the evaluations, participants could anticipate the valence (negative or positive) of the evaluation a priori. Analyses showed that participants receiving active tDCS were (a) slower to fixate on their self-photograph, (b) spent less time fixating on their self-photograph, and (c) spent more time fixating on the evaluator photograph. During unanticipated evaluations, active tDCS was associated with less time spent fixating on the evaluation. Furthermore, among those receiving active tDCS, SCRs were attenuated as a function of slower times to fixate on the self-photograph. Taken together, these results suggest that in a context of SET, prefrontal tDCS decreases self-attention while increasing other-attention, and that attenuated self-referential attention specifically may be a neurocognitive mechanism through which tDCS reduces emotional reactivity. Moreover, the results suggest that tDCS reduces vigilance toward stimuli that possibly convey threatening information, corroborating past research in this area.

Excluded but not alone. Does social exclusion prevent the occurrence of a Joint Simon Effect (JSE)?

The Joint Simon Effect (JSE) is known to reflect the natural and spontaneous tendency to integrate actions from another individual into our own action system during joint action. This tendency to co-represent others' actions positively correlates with the dispositional tendency to take others' perspective. However, a quick episode of social exclusion has been shown to erase the tendency to co-represent others' actions. From a theoretical viewpoint, excluded individuals should still show signs of co-representation as ostracism tends to increase attention paid to others and Perspective Taking. In this context, this study challenges the idea that social exclusion eliminates all forms of co-representation (or JSE) by using an in-person version of the Task. We also intend to replicate findings on a positive link between Perspective Taking and the size of the JSE. To this end, participants played either an inclusive or exclusive version of the Cyberball game, then performed a joint go-nogo Simon Task. Perspective Taking was measured by using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. By contrast to previous results, our results revealed that excluded individuals co-represented others' actions as much as included ones. However, a positive correlation between Perspective Taking and the JSE was limited to included participants. We discuss these findings in terms of methodological differences and in the light of the social exclusion literature.

When Does Rejection Trigger Aggression? A Test of the Multimotive Model

Research has sought to identify the conditions under which rejection leads to retaliation. The Multimotive Model (MMM) proposes that there are three primary behavioral responses to rejection: prosocial (e.g., befriending others), asocial (e.g., withdrawal), and antisocial behavior (e.g., aggression toward others). In this study, we conducted the first full test of the MMM as well as expanded the model. Based on research linking aggression and “perceived groupness,” construal items were added assessing whether the rejection was perceived as extending beyond the individual to one's peers. We also included self-harm behavioral responses as this outcome was not sufficiently captured by existing antisocial or asocial operationalizations. This expanded model was then tested with two high school student samples (Ns of 231 and 374) who reported experiencing aggressive rejection (i.e., experienced physical, verbal, relational, or cyber aggression from peers). The MMM was compared to a saturated model separately in each of the two datasets using structural equation modeling. Results indicate that the saturated model provides a better fit for the data than the MMM across all models examined (all p < 0.001). In part, this is due to certain paths having different associations than hypothesized. For example, perceiving the rejection as carrying a higher cost was predicted to promote prosocial behavior, where instead it predicted asocial responses. Perceived groupness was the strongest predictor of antisocial responses. Self-harm outcomes were significantly and consistently associated with higher perceived costs across the models. These results and others will be discussed in the context of how we can better encourage prosocial and discourage antisocial and self-harm responses to social rejection, including bullying.

Outcasts and saboteurs: Intervention strategies to reduce the negative effects of social exclusion on team outcomes

The experience of social exclusion in the workplace adversely impacts employees’ well-being, job satisfaction, and productivity, and no one quite knows what to do about it. In this report, we describe the development and testing of three ostracism interventions, designed to help people cope with the negative effects of being excluded by one’s team. Across five studies, participants were assigned to a virtual ball toss game where they were either included or excluded by their teammates. Afterwards, they were given a task where they could earn money for themselves, for their entire team, or for an unrelated group (charity). Excluded participants worked less hard for their teams (even when this meant sacrificing their own earnings). This sabotage effect was specific, meaning that excluded individuals worked less hard on behalf of their teams, but not when they worked for themselves or for charity. We devised three intervention strategies—perspective, mentorship, and empowerment—to combat the negative effects of ostracism on people’s willingness to work for their teams. These interventions were successful; each increased people’s persistence in a team-based reward task, and in some cases, even raised the outcomes of excluded teammates to levels observed in included teammates. The effectiveness of these interventions also replicated successfully, using preregistered hypotheses, methods, and analyses. These studies add novel insights to a variety of fields that have examined the consequences of social exclusion, including social psychology, organizational behavior, and management science.

Do People Regard Robots as Human-Like Social Partners? Evidence From Perspective-Taking in Spatial Descriptions

Spatial communications are essential to the survival and social interaction of human beings. In science fiction and the near future, robots are supposed to be able to understand spatial languages to collaborate and cooperate with humans. However, it remains unknown whether human speakers regard robots as human-like social partners. In this study, human speakers describe target locations to an imaginary human or robot addressee under various scenarios varying in relative speaker–addressee cognitive burden. Speakers made equivalent perspective choices to human and robot addressees, which consistently shifted according to the relative speaker–addressee cognitive burden. However, speakers’ perspective choice was only significantly correlated to their social skills when the addressees were humans but not robots. These results suggested that people generally assume robots and humans with equal capabilities in understanding spatial descriptions but do not regard robots as human-like social partners.

School-wide social emotional learning (SEL) and bullying victimization: Moderating role of school climate in elementary, middle, and high schools

Guided by the school-wide social-emotional learning framework and social-ecological model, in this study we examined the associations between students' perceptions of four core social emotional learning (SEL) competencies (i.e., responsible decision-making, social awareness, self-management, and relationship skills) and school climate and their experience with bullying victimization through a multilevel framework. We also examined the multilevel moderating effects of students' perceptions of school climate, gender, and school levels (elementary, middle, and high schools) on the association between SEL competencies and bullying victimization. Participants were 23,532 students (4th to 12th grade) from 90 schools in Delaware. Using hierarchical linear modeling and controlling for demographic factors and school climate at both student and school levels, we found that three of the four core SEL competencies (i.e., social awareness, relationship skills, and self-management) and student-level school climate perceptions had significant associations with students' bullying victimization experiences. Moreover, the positive association between social awareness and bullying victimization and the negative association between self-management and bullying victimization were both mitigated in schools with more positive school climate at the student level. The association between some of the SEL competencies and bullying victimization varied depending on students' gender and grade levels. The findings highlight the unique and differentiated relations among the four core SEL competencies and students' bullying victimization experiences; they also suggest the importance of including school climate assessment and applying gender- and grade-level-specific efforts in bullying prevention programs with an SEL focus.

Modulation of Mu suppression during visual perspective taking by social rejection

Perspective taking is crucial for maintaining positive relationship with others in social interaction. Previous studies have shown that perspective-taking ability can be modulated by the experience of social rejection. The present study examined event-related dynamics of Mu power (8-13 Hz) in the EEG at sensorimotor area while rejected individuals performing visual perspective taking task. The reaction time and accuracy results showed that social rejection impaired self-regulation and impulsive control. The sensorimotor Mu suppression was enhanced during late processing (400-800 ms) of visual perspective taking in rejection individuals. Specifically, social rejection motivated sensitivity to other's perspective compared to one's own perspective. These findings verify the model of social monitoring system and the cognitive deconstruction theory partially by experiment, and even extend previous studies with that Mu suppression for visual perspective taking can be modulated by social rejection.

Hungry for inclusion: Exposure to peer victimization and heightened social monitoring in adolescent girls

Belonging to a social group is one of the most important factors contributing to well-being. The Belonging Regulation model proposes that humans possess a social monitoring system (SMS) that evaluates social inclusion and monitors belonging needs. Here, we used a prospective longitudinal design to examine links between peer victimization experienced across 7 years and social monitoring at the behavioral and neural level in adolescent girls (n = 38, Mage = 15.43 years, SD = .33). Participants completed a social evaluation task during a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan. More severe peer victimization was associated with increased activation to in-group versus out-group peers in the amygdala, ventral striatum, fusiform gyrus, and temporoparietal junction. Moreover, participants who displayed increased activation in these regions reported lower social self esteem and higher levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms. These results suggest that exposure to peer victimization across the school years is associated with heightened social monitoring at the neural level during adolescence, which has potential adverse implications for girls' adjustment and well-being.

Cognitive and Emotional Components of Rejection Sensitivity: Independent Contributions to Adolescent Self- and Interpersonal Functioning

In this article, we focus on rejection sensitivity (RS) in adolescents. Although the RS model distinguishes clearly between the emotional (i.e., anger and anxiety) and the cognitive (i.e., expectation of rejection) components, research has rarely examined their unique connection with psychological problems. We argue that considering the three components separately would provide additional insights regarding the relationship between RS and psychological problems. We aimed to test the goodness of fit of a three-factor solution and to investigate the validity of the three components separately in predicting self- and interpersonal functioning in adolescents. Indeed, 720 adolescents completed the Children’s Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire, self-reports of self- and interpersonal functioning (self-esteem and interpersonal reactivity), and peer ratings of preference and bothersomeness. The three-factor solution showed fit indexes comparable to the two alternative one-factor solutions underlying the traditional approach of the composite scores. More importantly, we found specific contributions of each of the three RS components in predicting different features of self- and interpersonal functioning. Thus, depending on the psychological problems under consideration, the role of the three RS components varies. We discuss the implications of these findings.

Does Intraindividual Variability of Personality States Improve Perspective Taking? An Ecological Approach Integrating Personality and Social Cognition

Research integrating cognitive abilities and personality has focused on the role of personality traits. We propose a theory on the role of intraindividual variability of personality states (hereafter state variability) on perspective taking, in particular, the ability to infer other peoples' mental states. First, we review the relevant research on personality psychology and social cognition. Second, we propose two complementary routes by which state variability relates to anchoring and adjustment in perspective taking. The first route, termed ego-dispersion, suggests that an increased state variability decreases egocentric bias, which reduces anchoring. The second route, termed perspective-pooling, suggests that an increased state variability facilitates efficient adjustment. We also discuss how our theory can be investigated empirically. The theory is rooted in an ecological interpretation of personality and social cognition, and flags new ways for integrating these fields of research.

Modulation of behavioral and brain responses to visual perspective taking by social rejection: Evidence from electrophysiology

Visual perspective taking (VPT) is crucial for reasoning about other people's mental states. To explore the modulation of behavioral and neural responses to visual perspective taking by social rejection, we firstly manipulated rejection using get-acquainted oral communication and a two-person visual perspective task, then explored how the experience of social rejection affected the behavioral and neural responses during the follow-up classical one-person visual perspective task. The subjective rating and behavior results showed that social rejection increased individuals' negative affect level and feelings of need-threat, decreased self-regulation and impulsive control. The event-related potentials (ERP) and standardized low resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA) results mainly showed that the increased parietal late slow wave (LSW) showed greater activities in SPL and rTPJ after social rejection. Moreover, compared with making judgments from self-perspective, making judgments from other-perspective yielded later TP450 and greater late frontal wave (LFW). In addition, the left LFW of socially rejected group showed more positive amplitude for other-inconsistent condition than that for other-consistent condition. These results suggested that social rejection might decrease impulsive control behaviorally, as well as increase neural processing of perspective taking, including visual-spatial perspective taking (indexed by the LSW), calculating of the self and other perspectives (indexed by the TP450), and processing of others' visual perspectives (indexed by the LFW). Our findings provide powerful evidence on neural mechanism underlying how social rejection modulates visual perspective taking, and support the model of social monitoring system, in that socially rejected individuals motivate to attend more carefully to social cues, such as other people's perspective.

You ≠ me: individual differences in the structure of social cognition

This study investigated the structure of social cognition, and how it is influenced by personality; specifically, how various socio-cognitive capabilities, and the pattern of inter-relationships and co-dependencies among them differ between divergent personality styles. To measure social cognition, a large non-clinical sample (n = 290) undertook an extensive battery of self-report and performance-based measures of visual perspective taking, imitative tendencies, affective empathy, interoceptive accuracy, emotion regulation, and state affectivity. These same individuals then completed the Personality Styles and Disorders Inventory. Latent Profile Analysis revealed two dissociable personality profiles that exhibited contrasting cognitive and affective dispositions, and multivariate analyses indicated further that these profiles differed on measures of social cognition; individuals characterised by a flexible and adaptive personality profile expressed higher action orientation (emotion regulation) compared to those showing more inflexible tendencies, along with better visual perspective taking, superior interoceptive accuracy, less imitative tendencies, and lower personal distress and negativity. These characteristics point towards more efficient self-other distinction, and to higher cognitive control more generally. Moreover, low-level cognitive mechanisms served to mediate other higher level socio-emotional capabilities. Together, these findings elucidate the cognitive and affective underpinnings of individual differences in social behaviour, providing a data-driven model that should guide future research in this area.

Evaluation and memory of social events in borderline personality disorder: Effects of valence and self-referential context

People's memory of past social encounters influences current social interactions. Social rejection has been shown to increase people's memory for social events particularly when referring to others rather than themselves. Social rejection and neglect often characterize biographies of individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Using a social memory task, we investigated whether the evaluation and memory of social events is altered in BPD and whether this depends on reference to the self or others. 30 patients with BPD and 30 healthy controls evaluated the valence of positive, neutral, and negative standardized events, which were either social or nonsocial. Subsequently, participants had to recall these events. BPD patients evaluated social events of negative and neutral valence as more negative than healthy controls. Further, only BPD patients tended to preferentially recall self-referential social events. These findings suggest altered self-referential processing of social events that affects both the evaluation and the memory for social events.

Heterosexual Rejection and Mate Choice: A Sociometer Perspective

Previous studies about the effects of social rejection on individuals' social behaviors have produced mixed results and tend to study mating behaviors from a static point of view. However, mate selection in essence is a dynamic process, and therefore sociometer theory opens up a new perspective for studying mating and its underlying practices. Based on this theory and using self-perceived mate value in the relationship between heterosexual rejection and mate choice as a mediating role, this current study examined the effects of heterosexual rejection on mate choice in two experiments. Results showed that heterosexual rejection significantly reduced self-perceived mate value, expectation, and behavioral tendencies, while heterosexual acceptance indistinctively increased these measures. Self-perceived mate value did not serve as a mediator in the relationship between heterosexual rejection and mate expectation, but it mediated the relationship between heterosexual rejection and mating behavior tendencies toward potential objects. Moreover, individuals evaded both rejection and irrelevant people when suffering from rejection.

Social exclusion modulates event-related frontal theta and tracks ostracism distress in children

Social exclusion is a potent elicitor of distress. Previous studies have shown that medial frontal theta oscillations are modulated by the experience of social exclusion. Using the Cyberball paradigm, we examined event-related dynamics of theta power in the EEG at medial frontal sites while children aged 8-12 years were exposed to conditions of fair play and social exclusion. Using an event-related design, we found that medial frontal theta oscillations (4-8Hz) increase during both early (i.e., 200-400ms) and late (i.e., 400-800ms) processing of rejection events during social exclusion relative to perceptually identical "not my turn" events during inclusion. Importantly, we show that only for the later time window (400-800ms) slow-wave theta power tracks self-reported ostracism distress. Specifically, greater theta power at medial frontal sites to "rejection" events predicted higher levels of ostracism distress. Alpha and beta oscillations for rejection events were unrelated to ostracism distress at either 200-400ms or 400-800ms time windows. Our findings extend previous studies by showing that medial frontal theta oscillations for rejection events are a neural signature of social exclusion, linked to experienced distress in middle childhood.