Ostracism Research Research Articles

Ostracism in everyday life: A framework of threat and behavioral responses in real life.

Ostracism-being ignored and excluded-is part of many individuals' daily lives. Yet, ostracism is often studied in laboratory settings and rarely in natural settings. Here, we report one of the first investigations into ostracism in everyday life by documenting how often and where ostracism occurs; who the sources of ostracism are; and how ostracism affects targets' feelings and behaviors. Two experience sampling studies using event-contingent (N = 323, k = 1,107 ostracism experiences in 14 days) and time-signaling sampling approaches (N = 272, k = 7,943 assessments including 767 ostracism experiences in 7 days) show that ostracism is an aversive experience that takes place in a range of contexts and relationships, as often as two to three times per week on average. Reconciling previously mixed findings regarding ostracism's effects on behavior and extending existing theory, we propose a novel framework of behavioral reactions based on need-threat levels: When psychological needs are severely threatened, individuals react to everyday ostracism with avoidance (i.e., withdrawal) and antisocial inclinations (i.e., they exhibit significantly stronger antisocial intentions, although they do not engage in antisocial behavior more frequently). Conversely, when psychological needs are threatened to a lesser extent, individuals are more likely to adopt approach behaviors (i.e., prosocial behavior, talking to others, or connecting with them on social media). Our findings considerably extend present theorizing in ostracism research as they allow to understand when and how individuals experience everyday ostracism and how behavioral reactions after ostracism form in real life. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The silent struggle: a systematic review and bibliometric analysis of workplace ostracism

Purpose The review paper aims to understand the development of workplace ostracism as a field in organizational studies from 2000 to the present. The study provides a comprehensive synthesis of the current state of the domain by exploring its antecedents, consequences, underlying mechanisms and buffering mechanisms. Design/methodology/approach The present study analyses 134 published peer-reviewed empirical and non-empirical articles retrieved from the Scopus database. A systematic literature review and bibliometric analyses (using VOS viewer) have been used to gain insights into the development and trends within the field. Bibliometric analyses involved science mapping techniques such as co-citation analysis, co-occurrence of keywords and bibliographic coupling. Combining these three techniques, the study aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of the workplace ostracism research domain's historical, current and future landscape. Findings In the present study, through descriptive analyses, the authors uncovered publishing trends, productive journals, countries and industries that contribute to this research field. The systematic review enabled the showcasing of the current landscape of workplace ostracism. The bibliometric analyses shed light on major authors, influential articles, prominent journals and significant keywords in workplace ostracism. Originality/value This study enriches the existing literature by offering a comprehensive research framework for workplace ostracism. It goes beyond that by presenting significant bibliographic insights by applying bibliometric analyses. Furthermore, this study identifies and emphasizes future research directions using the theory, characteristics, construct and methodologies framework, aiming to expand the knowledge base and understanding of this topic.

Death of the social self? Comparing the effects of ostracism to mortality salience

ABSTRACT The ‘social death’ metaphor is used to reflect ostracism’s severity and death-related themes often influence ostracism research. To determine its accuracy, we examined the similarity of ostracism and mortality salience (MS) outcomes. To manipulate these constructs, we used writing prompts in Study 1, and Cyberball and a novel MS manipulation, ‘Cybergrave,’ in studies 2, 3a, and 3b. In Study 4, we correlated chronic ostracism and death-thought accessibility. Ostracism uniquely threatened psychological needs, whereas MS uniquely activated death thoughts. Moreover, the correlation between chronic ostracism and death-thought accessibility was small and non-significant when controlling for related variables. Results suggest the death metaphor may not always be accurate. Death-related language may bias how ostracism is conceptualized and studied, emphasizing pain over recovery.

17 Years ofworkplace ostracism research: Bibliometric analysis

17 Years ofworkplace ostracism research: Bibliometric analysis

Retrospections of the Workplace Ostracism Research: Foundations, Identifying Trends, and Future Directions

Retrospections of the Workplace Ostracism Research: Foundations, Identifying Trends, and Future Directions

How and when workplace ostracism influences employee deviant behavior: A self-determination theory perspective

Drawing on self-determination theory, this study examines the relationship between workplace ostracism and deviant behavior by focusing on the mediating role of basic psychological needs and the moderating role of perceived inclusive climate. Findings based on the analysis of 247 valid survey samples suggest that (1) workplace ostracism has a significant positive impact on employees' deviant behavior; (2) basic psychological needs mediate the relationship between workplace ostracism and employees' deviant behavior; and (3) employees' perceived inclusive climate weakens the negative effect of workplace ostracism on basic psychological needs. This study develops new perspectives for workplace ostracism research, extends the factors that influence employees' deviant behavior, and expands the boundary conditions of organizational difference in self-determination theory. Moreover, these empirical results provide important theoretical guidance to decrease employees' deviant behavior in organizations.

When and how favour rendering ameliorates workplace ostracism over time: Moderating effect of self‐monitoring and mediating effect of popularity enhancement

Despite increasing scholarly attention to workplace ostracism, victims receive little guidance regarding how to break its negative spiral over time. Drawing on a multi‐motive model of rejection‐related experiences and the cybernetic model of impression management, this study examines how and why ostracized employees might ameliorate workplace ostracism through impression management efforts to enhance their popularity. Specifically, an ostracized worker may employ favour rendering tactics to enhance her or his popularity, as reported by peers, which can help reduce ostracism. In addition, ostracized employees with strong self‐monitoring tendencies may be more likely to employ favour rendering tactics and use them more effectively to enhance their popularity and thus reduce ostracism. Data collected from 277 employee–coworker pairs in a three‐wave, time‐lagged design over 2 years confirm the proposed hypotheses, tested in a two‐stage moderated mediation model. These findings have theoretical implications for ostracism research, as well as practical implications to help employees and organizations overcome ostracism.Practitioner points Being ostracized often prompts self‐focused responses, but to reduce it, ostracized employees instead should pay attention to others and seek to help others to alter the treatment they receive from others. High self‐monitoring employees tend to employ favour rendering tactics to increase their popularity and mitigate ostracism. To help ostracized employees mitigate ostracism, managers and organizations can suggest ways to increase their popularity among their peers.

The vicious circle of social exclusion and psychopathology: a systematic review of experimental ostracism research in psychiatric disorders.

Social exclusion (ostracism) is a major psychosocial factor contributing to the development and persistence of psychiatric disorders and is also related to their social stigma. However, its specific role in different disorders is not evident, and comprehensive social psychology research on ostracism has rather focused on healthy individuals and less on psychiatric patients. Here, we systematically review experimental studies investigating psychological and physiological reactions to ostracism in different responses of psychiatric disorders. Moreover, we propose a theoretical model of the interplay between psychiatric symptoms and ostracism. A systematic MEDLINE and PsycINFO search was conducted including 52 relevant studies in various disorders (some of which evaluated more than one disorder): borderline personality disorder (21 studies); major depressive disorder (11 studies); anxiety (7 studies); autism spectrum disorder (6 studies); schizophrenia (6 studies); substance use disorders (4 studies); and eating disorders (2 studies). Psychological and physiological effects of ostracism were assessed with various experimental paradigms: e.g., virtual real-time interactions (Cyberball), social feedback and imagined scenarios. We critically review the main results of these studies and propose the overall concept of a vicious cycle where psychiatric symptoms increase the chance of being ostracized, and ostracism consolidates or even aggravates psychopathology. However, the specificity and stability of reactions to ostracism, their neurobiological underpinnings, determinants, and moderators (e.g., attachment style, childhood trauma, and rejection sensitivity) remain elusive.

Diagnosing member-customer ostracism in co-operatives and counterpoising its relationship-poisoning effects

PurposeThis paper aims to examine a core member-customer threat in co-operatives (co-ops) by drawing from ostracism research, assessing co-op ostracism’s impact on critical membership and relational exchange outcomes and discussing why relationship marketing research needs to pay more attention to the overlooked role of implicit mistreatment forms in customer harm-doing.Design/methodology/approachThree studies were conducted. In Study 1, ostracism in co-ops was explored, and a measurement scale for co-op ostracism was developed. In Study 2, the core conceptual model was empirically tested with data from members of three different co-ops. In Study 3, a coping strategy was integrated into an extended model and empirically tested with a new sample of co-op members.FindingsOstracism is present in co-ops and “poisons” crucial relational (and membership) outcomes, despite the presence of other relationship-building or relationship-destroying accounts. Coupling entitativity with cognitive capital attenuates ostracism’s impact.Research limitations/implicationsInspired by co-ops’ membership model and inherent relational advantage, this research is the first to adopt a co-op member-customer perspective and shed light on an implicit relationship-destroying factor.Practical implicationsCo-op decision makers might use the diagnostic tool developed in the paper to detect ostracism and fight it. Moreover, a novel coping strategy for how co-ops (or other firms) might fend off ostracism threats is offered in the article.Originality/valueThe present study illuminates a dark side of a relationally profuse customer context, painting a more complete picture of relationship marketing determinants. Little attention has been given to ostracism as a distinct and important social behaviour in marketing research and to co-ops as a research context.

Workplace ostracism And workplace behaviors: A moderated mediation model of perceived stress and psychological empowerment

ABSTRACTBackground and objectives: Workplace ostracism research has examined numerous underlying mechanisms to understand the link between workplace ostracism and behavioral outcomes. Ostracism has been suggested to be an interpersonal stressor; however, research has not investigated workplace ostracism from a stress perspective. Therefore, the study investigated the mediating effect of perceived stress for the relationships between workplace ostracism and helping behavior, voicing behavior, and task performance. The study also investigated the moderating effect of psychological empowerment for the relationships between perceived stress and behavioral outcomes.Design: The study design was a three-wave self-reported questionnaire.Method: The study sampled 225 full-time employees in South Korea and regression analyses with bootstrapping were conducted to test the moderated mediation models.Results: The bootstrapped 95% CI around the indirect effects did not contain zero; therefore, perceived stress mediated the relationship between workplace ostracism and helping behavior (–.06), voicing behavior (–.07), and task performance (–.07). Further, the moderated mediation analyses found perceived stress mediated the relationships between workplace ostracism and behavioral outcomes only when individuals perceived low levels of psychological empowerment.Conclusion: The findings suggest that workplace ostracism is a stressor and psychological empowerment can mitigate the negative effects of ostracism on behavioral outcomes.

Why am I ostracized and how would I react? — A review of workplace ostracism research

Ostracism is an important issue in the workplace and studies on this issue are diverse and large. This paper comprehensively reviews the literature related to workplace ostracism in five aspects. First, in discussing why ostracism occurs, it outlines that individuals are ostracized due to their dispositions, ability and skills, behavioral features, and perpetrators’ ostracism motives. Second, in investigating the consequences of ostracism, it outlines that victims would respond with affective and attitudinal, physical, and behavioral tendencies, and these reactions can be either positive or negative. Third, in describing specific mechanisms for ostracism to take effect, it summarizes that threat-to-needs as well as affective and cognitive responses play important roles. Fourth, regarding the mixed findings of ostracism’s impact, it points out that extant inconsistencies lie in individual differences, temporal effects, and situational cues. Last, in recommending future research areas, it suggests several promising directions, particularly the role of culture in shaping victims’ responses to ostracism. We hope this article will be a good foundation for management researchers in Asia Pacific regions to conduct indigenous studies of workplace ostracism relevant to their own contexts.

Atimia: A novel group-based paradigm for manipulating ostracism and group members’ performance.

Ostracism, being excluded and ignored, is a socially painful experience that can lead to distressing consequences, including thwarted basic needs satisfaction and worsened mood (Williams & Nida, 2011). Ostracism researchers have relied heavily on a single paradigm: Cyberball (Williams, Cheung, & Choi, 2000), and although Cyberball has been conducted successfully with over 5,000 participants, there are few alternative paradigms to replicate ostracism’s effects. Specifically, no alternative paradigms utilize a group-based interaction in which players continuously interact to achieve a goal. Additionally, researchers have not incorporated a key characteristic of the group that influences satisfaction: the efficacy of a group to accomplish a task (i.e., burdensomeness). To address these issues, we designed Atimia, a group-based game in which players take turns completing word-association items. We manipulated computer-controlled agents to either ostracize or include participants and to be burdensome (i.e., perform poorly) or nonburdensome. We found participants felt worse when they were ostracized, compared with when they were included, and when playing with a burdensome versus nonburdensome group. Ostracism effect sizes were comparable with Cyberball and other alternative ostracism paradigms. Similar to previous ostracism research, a group characteristic (burdensomeness) did not buffer the effects of ostracism. Examining beyond the immediate ostracism effects, participants were more interested in continuing with a nonburdensome group that included them compared with a burdensome, but inclusive, group or a group that ostracized (regardless of group burdensomeness). Initial results suggest Atimia is a means to replicate ostracism’s effects and is a new tool for researchers studying groups.

Sources of Ostracism

Until recently, researchers in the field of ostracism (i.e., the act of being excluded and ignored) have focused on investigating this phenomenon from the perspective of targets (i.e., the ostracized person). Although this has yielded important discoveries about the consequences of being ostracized, very little is known about the nature and consequences of being a source of ostracism (i.e., the ostracizer). This article reviews the current ostracism research pertaining to sources and outlines the immediate consequences of ostracizing. Also explored are the key challenges that researchers must overcome to ensure that ostracism is investigated from the perspective of both targets and sources.

The Recruitment and Radicalisation of Western Citizens: Does Ostracism Have a Role in Homegrown Terrorism?

<p class="p1">Humans have a consuming desire for social interaction. Consequently, if a member is ostracised from a group, this can have huge implications for their well-being. Once ostracised, individuals may try to fortify their social needs by seeking out accepting groups. Research suggests that this makes individuals prone to social influence and joining negative groups. This paper evaluates current ostracism research, and discusses its implications with regard to identity and the radicalisation process. The aim was to highlight the risk factors that arose from the societal exclusion of Muslims through Islamophobia following 9/11, and the increase in homegrown terrorism with regards to ostracism research. It concludes that future research and counter-terrorism strategies must consider ostracism as a factor in the radicalisation process.

Hurting You Hurts Me Too

Much research has documented the harmful psychological effects of being ostracized, but research has yet to determine whether compliance with ostracizing other people is psychologically costly. We conducted two studies guided by self-determination theory to explore this question, using a paradigm that borrows from both ostracism research and Milgram’s classic study of obedience. Supporting our guiding hypothesis that compliance with ostracizing others carries psychological costs, the results of Experiment 1 showed that such compliance worsened mood compared with complying with instructions to include others and with receiving no instructions involving inclusion or exclusion, an effect explained by thwarted psychological needs resulting from ostracizing others. Experiment 2 revealed increases in negative affect both when individuals ostracized others and when individuals were ostracized themselves. Our findings point to the robust psychological costs associated with ostracizing other people, with implications for group behaviors.

Examining the Relationship Between Ostracism and ADHD

Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a behavioral disorder characterized by inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity (Cincinnati Children’s, 2013). Much of ADHD research focuses on the potential social consequences of ADHD such as ostracism. More detailed research goes on to examine the impact of ostracism on affect, such as increased depression and anxiety among ostracized individuals. However, recent ostracism research indicates that feelingsof social exclusion may cause a decline in performance on cognitive and behavioral measures. I propose that if ostracism can cause cognitive and behavioral patterns that resemble those of ADHD, then it is possible that prolonged ostracism (especially early in life) can exacerbate risk for developing ADHD. Furthermore, it is plausible that individuals who are ostracized, as a consequence of ADHD may not only experience negative emotions, but may also experience compromised cognitive function. Thus while the present view of the relationship between ADHD and ostracism is one directional: ADHD leads to ostracism (ADHD ostracism), I propose that the relationship between ADHD and ostracism might be reciprocal: ostracism causes ADHD, thus causing further ostracism, further increasing ADHD-related cognitive and behavioral deficits (ADHD ostracism). This review surveys the literature and links cognitive and behavioral characteristics that ADHD and the consequences of social exclusion share.

Virtually Ostracized: Studying Ostracism in Immersive Virtual Environments

Electronic-based communication (such as Immersive Virtual Environments; IVEs) may offer new ways of satisfying the need for social connection, but they also provide ways this need can be thwarted. Ostracism, being ignored and excluded, is a common social experience that threatens fundamental human needs (i.e., belonging, control, self-esteem, and meaningful existence). Previous ostracism research has made use of a variety of paradigms, including minimal electronic-based interactions (e.g., Cyberball) and communication (e.g., chatrooms and Short Message Services). These paradigms, however, lack the mundane realism that many IVEs now offer. Further, IVE paradigms designed to measure ostracism may allow researchers to test more nuanced hypotheses about the effects of ostracism. We created an IVE in which ostracism could be manipulated experimentally, emulating a previously validated minimal ostracism paradigm. We found that participants who were ostracized in this IVE experienced the same negative effects demonstrated in other ostracism paradigms, providing, to our knowledge, the first evidence of the negative effects of ostracism in virtual environments. Though further research directly exploring these effects in online virtual environments is needed, this research suggests that individuals encountering ostracism in other virtual environments (such as massively multiplayer online role playing games; MMORPGs) may experience negative effects similar to those of being ostracized in real life. This possibility may have serious implications for individuals who are marginalized in their real life and turn to IVEs to satisfy their need for social connection.

Does social support reduce distress caused by ostracism? It depends on the level of one's self-esteem

We hypothesized that the companionship of a close other would buffer the negative effect of ostracism for people with a strong sense of self-esteem. Participants were either included or ostracized during the experiment with the presence of a close other or a stranger. We measured the participants' self-esteem and feelings about the ostracism or inclusion experience. Consistent with our predictions, participants accompanied by a close other were less threatened by the ostracism experience than those accompanied by a stranger; furthermore, the buffering effect of a social companion on ostracism was more apparent among participants high in self-esteem but not among those low in self-esteem. The implications of these findings for ostracism research were discussed.

Having a Cyberball: Using a ball-throwing game as an experimental social stressor to examine the relationship between neuroticism and coping

Research examining the relationship between neuroticism and coping has been limited by reliance on dispositional and retrospective methodologies. The current experiments evaluated the utility of a ball-throwing game used in ostracism research, as an experimental stressor with which to examine neuroticism-related differences in coping. Experiment 1 revealed that being excluded during Cyberball is associated with lowered mood and self-esteem, even when widely-used measures are employed. Being ostracised also evoked an emotion-focused coping response. Experiment 2 increased the sensitivity of response-scales and introduced an ambiguous Cyberball condition. When exclusion was ambiguous, high-neuroticism participants perceived themselves as having less control during the game. Being excluded evoked emotion-focused and avoidance coping responses. Consistent with previous research high-neuroticism participants engaged in more emotion-focused coping. Future research should consider the utility of ambiguous conditions in examining experimental manipulations, as well as individual differences in sensitivity to social ostracism.

Teaching and Learning Guide for: ‘Ostracism: The Kiss of Social Death’

Teaching and Learning Guide for: ‘Ostracism: The Kiss of Social Death’