PSY-1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 25: Virtual Reality, Ingroups And Outgroups, Psych
Document Summary
Social psychologists study how people perceive, interact with, and affect each other. Humans are unique in the animal kingdom, living cooperatively in large groups of unrelated individuals. Social scientists refer to humans as an uber social . Every society uses isolation and exclusion as a form of punishment, and research suggests that exclusion is literally painful. In one study, naomi eisenberger and colleagues had participants play a virtual reality. Participants believed they were playing with two other people in different scanners, but were actually playing with a programmed game. In the beginning of the study, all three players are passing the ball around. About halfway through, the subject is taken out of the game and is ignored by the other players. During the exclusion part of the game, participants showed increased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex. An area of the brain that is also responsive during physical pain.
