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This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it.

EV0737

Ostracism as a social stressor: the context-dependent role of trait emotional intelligence in future-oriented decision-making

SOCIAL EXCLUSION AS A SOCIAL STRESSOR: THE CONTEXT-DEPENDENT ROLE OF TRAIT EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IN FUTURE-ORIENTED DECISION-MAKING

High trait emotional intelligence is associated with more future-oriented choices in the context of acceptance but with steeper temporal discounting following social exclusion, suggesting that it does not function as a uniformly protective trait.

The study aimed to test the context-dependent role of trait emotional intelligence (EI) in the effect of social exclusion on intertemporal decision-making. Sixty-one university students (mean age 20.52; SD = 1.32; 34 women, 27 men) were randomly assigned to a vignette-based acceptance or exclusion condition; the Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale, Need-Threat Scale, and Monetary Choice Questionnaire were administered, with higher k values indicating a stronger preference for immediate rewards. The manipulation check showed that social condition affected four basic needs (Pillai’s trace = 0.588; F(4,56) = 19.95; p < 0.001); excluded participants scored lower on belonging (F = 83.36), self-esteem (F = 22.53), and meaningful existence (F = 20.58; all p < 0.001), as well as control (F = 9.75; p = 0.003), with the strongest effect observed for belonging (partial eta squared (ηp2) = 0.586). The overall model was marginally significant (F(3,57) = 2.67; p = 0.056), so interpretation focused on the significant interaction. Trait EI significantly moderated the effect of social condition on delay discounting (B = -0.0011; SE = 0.0005; t = -2.19; p = 0.033; ΔR2 = 0.074); the effect of condition was significant at high EI levels (B = -0.0260; SE = 0.0096; p = 0.009; 95% CI -0.0452 to -0.0069), but not at low or median EI levels. The figure shows that, at high EI levels, k rose to approximately 0.042 in the exclusion condition and fell to approximately 0.016 in the acceptance condition. According to the authors, trait EI may facilitate future-oriented decisions in supportive contexts but may reflect heightened sensitivity to social threat following exclusion; this finding differs from the protective association reported by Hovnanyan and colleagues (2022) and the nonsignificant EI-by-stress interaction reported by Fallon and colleagues (2014), suggesting that EI should be evaluated within its interpersonal context.

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