Abstract
Research has shown that ostracism results in aggressive behavior towards the ostracising other, but also causes displaced aggression—aggression directed towards an innocent person. Our study investigated whether displaced aggressive responses to ostracism were increased by three types of aggression proneness (readiness for aggression) based on different mechanisms: emotional-impulsive, habitual-cognitive or personality-immanent. Participants (n = 118) played a Cyberball game in which they were either excluded or included, next prepared a hot sauce sample for another person as an indicator of aggression and completed the Readiness for Interpersonal Aggression Inventory. Results showed that ostracism evoked more aggression in participants with high rather than with low emotional-impulsive readiness for aggression. Only this type of readiness moderated the ostracism-aggression relationship indicating that mostly affective mechanisms induce displaced aggressive responses to exclusion.
Highlights
Ostracism, being ignored or excluded, and rejection, being rejected after initial or anticipated acceptance have powerful consequences at the neuropsychological, emotional and cognitive levels (Williams 2007a)
We propose that individual differences in aggressive reactions to ostracism are based either on emotional, cognitive or motivational mechanisms that can regulate aggressive behavior
Chow et al (2008) suggested that the focus should be on anger not general negative affect and showed that anger but not sadness mediated the effect of ostracism on aggression
Summary
Ostracism, being ignored or excluded, and rejection, being rejected after initial or anticipated acceptance have powerful consequences at the neuropsychological, emotional and cognitive levels (Williams 2007a). It is important to note that ostracism and rejection have different effects on emotional distress (Bernstein and Claypool 2012a; Bernstein and Claypool 2012b) and preventive versus promotive behavior. As Molden et al (2009) suggest, the variability in effects arise because ostracism and rejection represent, different to some point, social situations. Indirect and implicit, while rejection is active, direct and explicit behavior. Ostracism is a form of exclusion that is often described as a Bnon-behavior^ (Williams 2007b), the most indirect, passive and implicit
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