Inclusion/Exclusion

Belonging to Groups as a Fundamental Human Need

People depend on others for much of their well-being. Most humans do not grow the food they eat, make the clothes they wear, or build the shelter in which they live. People obtain these basic necessities from members of their group. To a large extent, our lives depend on our ability to get along with and feel included by others. In our evolutionary history, exclusion from a group meant almost certain death. It therefore follows that people should be strongly motivated to gain inclusion in groups and avoid exclusion. Roy Baumeister and Mark Leary have suggested that people have a basic desire for positive and lasting relationships. According to this perspective, people try to think, feel, and act in ways that enable them to gain social inclusion and avoid exclusion. Moreover, inclusion is linked to a variety of positive outcomes, whereas exclusion often results in negative outcomes.

Examining Inclusion and Exclusion Inside and Outside the Laboratory

It is common for members of a group to exclude certain people. People apply for membership in a country club, only to be told that they are not wanted. College students experience exclusion when a desirable college fraternity or sorority rejects their application to join the organization. Children are not picked to join a team for games on the playground or are told they cannot sit next to another person in a school bus. Exclusion is also a common theme in movies and television shows. For example, most reality television shows involve inclusion or exclusion: Some people are excluded because they have terrible singing voices, whereas others are excluded because they do not work well with other members of a group. These examples suggest that inclusion and exclusion are familiar experiences for most people.

Psychologists investigate inclusion and exclusion using several different methods. In contrast to the types of exclusion people experience outside of the laboratory (e.g., not being invited to a friend's party), the methods psychologists use to understand inclusion and exclusion involve exposing people to situations that are less distressing and of lesser importance. The main reason for using mild forms of exclusion in laboratory research is that it would be unethical to expose people to extreme events, such as learning that a loved one does not reciprocate one's feelings, for the purpose of research. Despite the fact that most laboratory manipulations involve rather weak exclusion experiences, the effects of these manipulations tend to be quite strong. In what follows, the six most [Page 440]popular methods used to study exclusion and inclusion are described. In each method, people who experience exclusion are compared to people who experience inclusion (or some other event), in terms of their behaviors, cognitive activity, physical health, or emotions.

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