The Role of Perceived Similarity in Rejection

Abstract

This present research asks what happens to one’s mental health when one perceives high similarity to another person but is socially rejected by that person. Participants were rejected or accepted by someone who shared a similar interest or not. It was predicted that for the people high in perceived similarity to the target, those who were rejected by the target would experience more negative health consequences than those who were not rejected by the target. Contrary to predictions, there was no significant result between participants’ similarity and rejection on their level of mental health. However, results revealed the significant impact of rejection on mental health, indicating that rejected participants showed higher levels of depression and anxiety than accepted participants. These results have important implications about the effects of rejection on one’s health and prompts future research to explore rejection and health in more real- life social contexts.