A psychologist proposes a study of whether feeling excluded affects persistence. Sixty 14-year-old pupils receive invitations at home directly from the psychologist. Their form tutors are not told who agrees to take part. Each pupil and their parent or guardian signs a consent form describing a study of online decisions and difficult puzzles. The form does not mention social rejection.

Different pupils take part in each of two conditions:

• In the exclusion condition, 30 pupils are told, untruthfully, that three other pupils have viewed their profile and have all chosen not to include them in an online team.
• In the comparison condition, 30 pupils are told that no team-selection stage will take place and that they should move directly to the individual task.

All pupils then receive the same set of difficult puzzles. The psychologist records how many puzzles each pupil attempts in 10 minutes. Pupils are told that they may stop at any time and may ask for their data to be removed.

Immediately afterwards, each pupil is told the full purpose of the study, and pupils in the exclusion condition are told that the three pupils who rejected them did not exist. Pupils are again offered the chance to remove their data. A school counsellor is available for anyone who remains upset.

The psychologist argues that comparing the two conditions could help schools understand how exclusion affects pupils' persistence.