Observational studyPloS one2020
Five-year-olds' facial mimicry following social ostracism is modulated by attachment security.
Observational study in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Empirical Evidence for the Developmental Origins of Autonomic Stress Regulation: An Attachment Account.Developmental psychobiology · 2026Article
- Infants' neural processing of emotional faces after ostracism.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Considering Developmental Phenotypes of Suicidality for Young Black Children.Mental health science · 2024Article
- Article
- Applicability of a Novel Attunement Instrument and Its Relationship to Parental Sensitivity in Infants With and Without Visual Impairments.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Collective Rhythm as an Emergent Property During Human Social Coordination.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Social ostracism triggers an increase in affiliative behaviours. One such behaviour is the rapid copying of others' facial expressions, called facial mimicry. Insofar, it remains unknown how individual differences in intrinsic affiliation motivation regulate responses to social ostracism during early development. We examined children's facial mimicry following ostracism as modulated by individual differences in the affiliation motivation, expressed in their attachment tendencies. Resistant and avoidant tendencies are characterized by high and low affiliation motivation, and were hypothesized to lead to facial mimicry enhancement or suppression towards an ostracizing partner, respectively. Following an ostracism manipulation in which children played a virtual game (Cyberball) with an includer and an excluder peer, mimicry of the two peers' happy and sad facial expressions was recorded with electromyography (EMG). Attachment was assessed via parent-report questionnaire. We found that 5-year-olds smiled to sad facial expressions of the excluder peer, while they showed no facial reactions for the includer peer. Neither resistant nor avoidant tendencies predicted facial mimicry to the excluder peer. Yet, securely attached children smiled towards the excluder peer, when sad facial expressions were displayed. In conclusion, these findings suggest a modulation of facial reactions following ostracism by early attachment.
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