Brett McKay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness Podcast.

Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like

unrequited love Charlie Brown once said. Indeed, being spurned by one's

crush or for that matter by a friend a potential employer not only ruins the

taste of one's favorite sandwich

bread but causes great psychological distress and even physical pain.

Here to walk us through one of life's worst feelings is Mark Leary, Professor

Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University and the editor of Interpersonal

Rejection.

Today on the show, Mark impacts the experience of social rejection, including why we're so sensitive

to it and the emotions and behaviors it causes

which can be positive and pro-social or maladaptive and even violent.

We discussed the role that is played by the sociometer, a concept mark originated,

in monitoring our social acceptance and rejection,

and what influences its sensitivity to fluctuations in our relational value.

And Mark offers advice on how to remove some of the sting of rejection and civilly reject others.

After the show.

I'm delighted to be here.

So you are professor's psychology. You have done research on the

self. We had you on last time to discuss the curse of the self. But you also done

research on interpersonal rejection, which is social rejection.

How do you as a psychologist define interpersonal rejection?

...