All participants firs experienced a negative emotional event of social exclusion via the Cyberball task.

The Cyberball Paradigm had the participants believe that they were playing a virtual game of catch with two other “real” players.

All participants experienced Cyberball exclusion. Participants were initially included in the virtual game of catch (first 6 passes) but were then excluded from passes from the other two players for the remainder of the game (the remaining 19 passes), thus receiving the ball only 8% of the time.

Past research shows that Cyberball exclusion causes heightened negative affect and defensive behavior. Narcissists are particularly vulnerable to this experience, demonstrating increased activation in the putative social pain network and increased defensiveness.