Social belonging is a fundamental human need that appears to be innate and universal. It is defined as a “subjective feeling of deep connection with social groups, physical places, and individual and collective experiences” (Allen et al., 2021). Considered as an important contributor to mental and physical well-being, human beings thrive to satisfy this need to belong.

Being excluded or ignored—so-called ostracism or social exclusion—threatens social needs like belonging. It negatively affects mood and is associated with mental health problems. Neurophysiological research has found that an increase in P3 is linked to processing of social exclusion and violation of a priori expectations regarding social participation.

The most commonly used paradigm in the research of social exclusion is Cyberball, which is a virtual ball-tossing game with two computer-controlled co-players. Participants receiving 50% fewer passes from their co-players in a second round (Block 2) led to an increased P3 response and negative mood.

In a new paradigm, Cyberband, a hierarchical setting was introduced, in which participants play an instrument in a virtual orchestra setting with two co-players and a subordinate conductor decides about participation. Exclusion of joint actions revealed an increase of P3 and a greater threat to belonging. While all instruments were the same in this version, a new version of Cyberband incorporated visual (matching vs. distinct instruments) and auditory (consonant vs. dissonant feedback sound) elements to bias the a priori expectations of social participation.

            The aim of this study is to investigate how visual and auditory deviation in the Cyberband paradigm influence ERP (P3) and behavioral responses (belonging and mood). Participants played two sets of the new version of Cyberband while EEG data was being recorded. After the second set participants were asked to evaluate the threat to belonging and their negative mood on a scale from -3 = “more in set 1” to +3 = “more in set 2”.

Based on previous research, we expected that double deviation (incongruence in auditory and visual aspect) leads to lower effects in P3, threat to belonging and negative mood as exclusion is more expected.

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