Social Support Rejection and Reappraisal by Providers and Recipients 1

Study 1 used recalled incidents involving offered or sought social support that were either rejected or later reappraised. Rejected offers of support were perceived to be ignored by would‐be recipients, whereas rejected requests for support were viewed as due to lack of concern by would‐be providers. For providers, upward reappraisal of support as well as downward reappraisal was usually based on direct feedback of consequences. Recipient reappraisals in either direction were also based mainly on outcomes that contradicted initial perceived effects of support. Study 2 provided additional evidence on the factors that might lead to rejected support. Evaluations of the effect of specific behaviors from potential support providers in hypothetical stress situations identified common behaviors such as offering advice, implying blame, second‐guessing the victim's behavior, and minimizing the problem to be unhelpful. Implications for increasing the effective delivery of social support are discussed.