Social Exclusion Multi-Site Replication Study

The authors replicate a study by IJzerman et al. (2012), which concluded that the experimental condition of social exclusion (vs. inclusion) in the Cyberball computer game decreases peripheral index finger temperature, but did so with a sample size smaller than the authors calculated was needed for their minimum effect size of interest (N=41 in the original; N=95 would be enough to replicate the effect with over 95% power even if it is 15% smaller than the original effect), in a single lab in a colder country (the Netherlands), yet concluded generalizability. The study received considerable news coverage (e.g., in the New York Times) and is well-cited (223 at the time of writing). The authors seek to overcome the limitations of the previous study by conducting a highly-powered replication of the effect (projected minimum N=500) in 8 different countries in 3 different climatic regions (Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, France, Turkey, Singapore, Nigeria, and Poland). The authors also extend the study by measuring body parts other than the index finger (pinky finger, supraclavicular, and wrist) and measure a selection of questionnaires that have been shown to be of relevance for social thermoregulatory mechanisms. Given the considerable power of the study and the inclusion of different climatic regions, these extensions can advance the theory on social thermoregulation in various important ways.