Comparison of the Effect of Experimental Induction of Social Exclusion with Social Acceptance on Cognitive Flexibility

Cognitive flexibility is one of the basic components of executive functions that not only improves the quality of social relations and adaptation of individuals but also affects the quality of social relations (rejection, acceptance). However, how the quality of social relations affect Cognitive flexibility is not clear, therefor the present study was conducted to compare the effect of social exclusion with social acceptance on cognitive flexibility. The method of this research was quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test with control group. The statistical population of this study was all adults with a mean age of 25.74 and undergraduate education, from which 60 people who met the inclusion criteria were selected and randomly divided into three groups of social acceptance, social exclusion and control. First, the subjects answered the Wisconsin test (Shahgholian et al., 2011); Then, by playing the virtual ball tossing game (Williams, Chang, Choi, 2000), social exclusion and social acceptance were induced in the two experimental groups. Then, to evaluate the effect of experimental induction, the experimental groups answered the basic needs threat scale of Williams (2001) and the positive and negative Affect scale of Watson, Clark and Tellegen (1988). Finally, the Wisconsin test was performed again in three groups. Research data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance, multivariate analysis of covariance and Bonferroni post hoc test. Findings of this study showed that social exclusion reduces cognitive flexibility in individuals (P = 0.01) and social acceptance enhances cognitive flexibility (p = 0.01). Considering the negative effect of social exclusion on cognitive flexibility and the importance of this component in high-level cognitive functions, it is necessary to pay attention to improving the quality of individuals' social relations in order to promote cognitive flexibility.