Abstract
AbstractOstracism presents a paradox: ostracizing a member from a group has been considered anti‐normative yet has been applied in many societies. This study attempts to resolve this paradox through the idea that people ostracize an individual to maximize benefits to the whole group. A paired‐comparison paradigm was developed that forced participants to choose a target of ostracism from one of two members who provided different amounts of benefits to the other members. Participants then rated the degree of psychological pain caused by ostracizing. Four experiments revealed that participants tended to choose to ostracize a benefactor (who provided benefits only to the participant) rather than a utilitarian (who maximized the benefits to the whole group). Participants felt the strongest psychological pain when ostracizing a utilitarian rather than a benefactor.
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