When Do Real-World Rejections Motivate People to Seek out Symbolic Social Bonds? Insights From the Risk-Regulation Model.

Lack of belonging can negatively affect mental and physical health, but experiences with social rejection are routine. Two studies examined whether being unable to mitigate the risk of rejection in real-world relationships motivates people to defensively immerse themselves in symbolic social bonds with celebrities and fictional characters. Study 1 (four daily diary samples) and Study 2 (cross-sectional sample) operationalized the ability to mitigate risk (i.e., the ability to self-protect) through the amount of time spent in the physical company of potentially hurtful/rejecting close others. In both studies, unmitigated risk (i.e., spending more time with potentially hurtful/rejecting close others) predicted increased/greater engagement with symbolic social bonds. These studies are the first to reveal specific characteristics of social rejection experiences that motivate escape into symbolic social bonds.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

• Publication date

  2025-11-11

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Psychology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1177/01461672251384699PMID 41220135
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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