Social exclusion causes a shift toward prevention motivation

•Chronic loneliness was associated with greater strength of prevention motivation and lower strength of promotion motivation.•Recall of an experience of social exclusion increased prevention goals.•Computer-stimulated ostracism led to fewer goal-promoting strategies.•Reading a hypothetical scenario of social exclusion caused a cautious, conservative response bias.

Four studies demonstrated that social exclusion caused a shift from promotion toward prevention motivation. Lonely individuals reported stronger prevention motivation and weaker promotion motivation than non-lonely individuals (Study 1). Those who either recalled an experience of social exclusion or were ostracized during an on-line ball tossing game reported stronger prevention motivation and generated fewer goal-promoting strategies (Studies 2 and 3) than those who were not excluded. Last, a hypothetical scenario of social exclusion caused a conservative response bias, whereas a scenario of social acceptance yielded a risky response bias in a recognition task (Study 4).