The aversive signature of social disagreement: evidence for conflict-like responses

People integrate social information asymmetrically, favoring agreement over disagreement. We propose that social disconfirmation functions as a mismatch signal analogous to cognitive conflict. We tested this hypothesis in two online experiments using perceptual tasks with controlled social feedback attributed to a previous participant. In Experiment 1 (N = 105), participants chose between environments offering high (70%) versus low (30%) agreement rates; preference progressively shifted toward high-agreement environments, and disagreement elicited post-disconfirmation slowing that was amplified when disagreement was infrequent – mirroring conflict-frequency effects. In Experiment 2 (N = 91), an Affect Misattribution Procedure revealed that neutral stimuli were rated as less pleasant following disagreement than agreement, particularly among participants who reliably encoded feedback valence. Across both experiments, disagreement was actively avoided, carried negative affective value, and triggered context-sensitive behavioral adjustments. These converging findings suggest that social disconfirmation operates as a mismatch signal, triggering hallmark signatures of cognitive conflict.