Ostracism

Ostracism occurs when someone is ignored and excluded by others. According to Kipling Williams and his colleagues, the act of ostracism is an adaptive response that occurs within groups as a [Page 629]reaction to burdensome members who threaten the group's strength or safety. Ostracism can allow the ostracized individual to correct his or her behavior or seek out other groups to join, thereby ensuring the individual's survival. Al though considered largely a group phenomenon, ostracism can also occur within dyadic relationships, where it is commonly known as the silent treatment.

Since the mid-1990s, researchers have conducted hundreds of experiments assessing the impact of ostracism (and the related phenomenon of rejection) on an individual's physiological responses, cognitions, emotions, and behaviors. A variety of paradigms have been used to manipulate ostracism and to measure its outcomes, resulting in converging evidence that even the slightest hint of ostracism is detected quickly and causes immediate pain, distress, an embodied feeling of coldness, threatened needs (belonging, self-esteem, control, and meaningful existence), and negative emotion. The evidence then diverges into different (sometimes paradoxical) behavioral responses.

Often, behavioral responses to ostracism appear to facilitate future inclusion in a group. For instance, ostracized individuals have been observed to pay closer attention to social information and to better interpret nonverbal social signals related to acceptance and liking (e.g., distinguishing between genuine and nongenuine smiles). Further, ostracized individuals are more likely to mimic (consciously and nonconsciously) others, to conform to unanimous but incorrect majorities, to comply with costly requests, and to behave in ways that make them appear more socially acceptable.

However, researchers have also observed ostracized individuals to feel emotionally numb and to be cognitively impaired (on complex tasks) or to retaliate and aggress toward nonresponsible others. When ostracism appears to be permanent or heavily thwarts a sense of control, the emotional system appears to shut down, self-regulation is impaired, and antisocial responses increase. Current thinking is that when future inclusion is unlikely, desires to control one's social environment and force others to acknowledge one's existence can trump desires to be liked, resulting in fewer prosocial actions (e.g., less volunteering, fewer donations, less cooperation), increased retaliation (e.g., noise blasts), and aggression.