Kipling D. Williams

Identifiability as a deterrant to social loafing: Two cheering experiments.

Two experiments tested the extent to which the identifiability of ones individual output moderates social loafing—the reduction of individual efforts due to the social presence of others. In the first stage of Experiment 1, participants were asked to produce noise either alone, in groups of two and six, or in pseudogroups where the individuals actually shouted alone but believed that one or five other people were shouting with them. As in previous research, people exerted less effort when they thought that they were shouting in groups than when they shouted alone. In the second stage, the same people were led to believe that their outputs would be identifiable even when they cheered in groups. This manipulation eliminated social loafing. Experiment 2 demonstrated that when individual outputs are always identifiable (even in groups), people consistently exert high levels of effort, and if their outputs are never identifiable (even when alone), they consistently exert low levels of effort across all group sizes. In concert, these studies suggest that identifiability is an important mediator of social loafing.

Cyberball: A program for use in research on interpersonal ostracism and acceptance

Since the mid-1990s, research on interpersonal acceptance and exclusion has proliferated, and several paradigms have evolved that vary in their efficiency, context specificity, and strength. This article describes one such paradigm, Cyberball, which is an ostensibly online ball-tossing game that participants believe they are playing with two or three others. In fact, the “others” are controlled by the programmer. The course and speed of the game, the frequency of inclusion, player information, and iconic representation are all options the researcher can regulate. The game was designed to manipulate independent variables (e.g., ostracism) but can also be used as a dependent measure of prejudice and discrimination. The game works on both PC and Macintosh (OS X) platforms and is freely available.

The social outcast: Ostracism, social exclusion, rejection, and bullying.

The Social Outcast: Introduction, Kipling D. Williams, Joseph P. Forgas, William von Hippel & Lisa Zadro. Part I. Theoretical Foundations. Ostracism: The Indiscriminate Early Detection System, Kipling D. Williams & Lisa Zadro. Varieties of Interpersonal Rejection. Mark R. Leary. The Inner Dimension of Social Exclusion: Intelligent Thought and Self-Regulation Among Rejected Persons, Roy F. Baumeister and C. Nathan DeWall. Part II. Deep Roots of Exclusion: Neuropsychological substrates of Isolation and Exclusion. Adding Insult to Injury: Social Pain Theory and Response to Social Exclusion, Geoff MacDonald, Rachell Kingsbury, and Stephanie Shaw. People Thinking about People: The Vicious Cycle of Being a Social Outcast in Ones Own Mind, John T. Cacioppo and Louise C. Hawkley. Why it Hurts to Be Left Out: The Neurocognitive Overlap between Physical and Social Pain, Naomi I. Eisenberger & Matthew D. Lieberman. Part III: Individual and Population Differences and the Impact of Social Exclusion and Bullying. Rejection Sensitivity as a Predictor of Affective and Behavioral Responses to Interpersonal Stress: A Defensive Motivational System, Rainer Romero-Canyas and Geraldine Downey. The Rejected and the Bullied: Lessons about Social Misfits from Developmental Psychology, Jaana Juvonen and Elisheva F. Gross. Role of Social Expectancies in Cognitive and Behavioral Responses to Social Rejection, Kristin L. Sommer and Yonata Rubin. Coping with Rejection: Core Social Motives, across Cultures, Susan T. Fiske and Mariko Yamamoto. Part IV: Influences of Rejection on Emotion, Perception, and Cognition. When Does Social Rejection Lead to Aggression? Jean M. Twenge. The Social Monitoring System: Enhanced Sensitivity to Social Cues and Information as an Adaptive Response to Social Exclusion and Belonging Need, Cynthia L. Pickett & Wendi L. Gardner. Social Snacking and Shielding: Using Social Symbols, Selves, and Surrogates in the Service of Belonging Needs, Wendi L. Gardner, Cynthia L. Pickett, and Megan Knowles. All Animals are Equal but some Animals are more Equal than Others: Social Identity and Marginal Membership, Michael A. Hogg. Bye Bye, Black Sheep: The Causes and Consequences of Rejection in Family Relationships, Julie Fitness. Part V: Effects of Social Exclusion on Pro- and Anti-Social Behavior. Exclusion and Nonconscious Behavioral Mimicry, Jessica L. Lakin and Tanya L. Chartrand. The Effect of Rejection on Anti-Social Behaviors: Social Exclusion Produces Aggressive Behaviors, Kathleen R. Catanese and Dianne M. Tice. Rejection and Entitativity: A Synergistic Model of Mass Violence, Lowell Gaertner and Jonathan Iuzzini. Avoiding the Social Death Penalty: Ostracism and Cooperation in Social Dilemmas, Jaap W. Ouwerkerk, Norbert L. Kerr, Marcello Gallucci, and Paul A. M. Van Lange.

Social brain development and the affective consequences of ostracism in adolescence

Recent structural and functional imaging studies have provided evidence for continued development of brain regions involved in social cognition during adolescence. In this paper, we review this rapidly expanding area of neuroscience and describe models of neurocognitive development that have emerged recently. One implication of these models is that neural development underlies commonly observed adolescent phenomena such as susceptibility to peer influence and sensitivity to peer rejection. Experimental behavioural evidence of rejection sensitivity in adolescence is currently sparse. Here, we describe a study that directly compared the affective consequences of an experimental ostracism manipulation (Cyberball) in female adolescents and adults. The ostracism condition led to significantly greater affective consequences in the adolescents compared with adults. This suggests that the ability to regulate distress resulting from ostracism continues to develop between adolescence and adulthood. The results are discussed in the context of models of neurocognitive development.

R U There? Ostracism by Cell Phone Text Messages

Ostracism has a powerful negative effect on individuals. Face-to-face (i.e., social) ostracism is not necessary for these effects to emerge; they occur also in Internet ball toss games and within chat rooms. In previous research, ostracized individuals observed the interaction between other members of a group. In this experiment, the authors tested whether imagined ostracism is sufficient to inflict psychological pain. They used a triadic cell phone text-messaging method such that after initial inclusion in a conversation, participants either continued to be included or received no further messages from the others (and saw no messages between the others). Ostracized participants reported worse mood; reported lower state levels of belonging, control, self-esteem, and meaningful existence; and wrote more provoking messages.

Ostracism: Consequences and Coping

Ostracism means being ignored and excluded by one or more others. Despite the absence of verbal derogation and physical assault, ostracism is painful: It threatens psychological needs (belonging, self-esteem, control, and meaningful existence); and it unleashes a variety of physiological, affective, cognitive, and behavioral responses. Here we review the empirical literature on ostracism within the framework of the temporal need-threat model.Ostracism means being ignored and excluded by one or more others. Despite the absence of verbal derogation and physical assault, ostracism is painful: It threatens psychological needs (belonging, self-esteem, control, and meaningful existence); and it unleashes a variety of physiological, affective, cognitive, and behavioral responses. Here we review the empirical literature on ostracism within the framework of the temporal need-threat model.

Eye Gaze as Relational Evaluation: Averted Eye Gaze Leads to Feelings of Ostracism and Relational Devaluation

Eye gaze is often a signal of interest and, when noticed by others, leads to mutual and directional gaze. However, averting one’s eye gaze toward an individual has the potential to convey a strong interpersonal evaluation. The averting of eye gaze is the most frequently used nonverbal cue to indicate the silent treatment, a form of ostracism. The authors argue that eye gaze can signal the relational value felt toward another person. In three studies, participants visualized interacting with an individual displaying averted or direct eye gaze. Compared to receiving direct eye contact, participants receiving averted eye gaze felt ostracized, signaled by thwarted basic need satisfaction, reduced explicit and implicit self-esteem, lowered relational value, and increased temptations to act aggressively toward the interaction partner.

Social loafing: Allocating effort or taking it easy?

When asked to work both alone and in groups, people exert less effort in groups, a phenomenon we call “social loafing.” Either of two possible strategies could explain this outcome: an allocational strategy where people work as hard as they can overall but conserve their strength for individual trials where work is personally beneficial and a minimizing strategy where the primary motive is to “get by” with the least effort possible. However, an allocational strategy would lead participants who always work in groups to put out as much effort as participants who always work alone, since there is no need to husband strength. Two studies using a sound production task found social loafing even under these conditions, suggesting that allocational strategies are not prevalent. Social loafing seems to occur when people perform together in groups, regardless of whether or not they must also perform alone.

The effects of group cohesiveness on social loafing and social compensation.

Individuals often engage in social loafing, exerting less effort on collective rather than individual tasks. Two experiments tested the hypothesis that social loafing can be reduced or eliminated when individuals work in cohesive rather than noncohesive groups. In Experiment 1, secretarial students

Chapter 6 Ostracism: A Temporal Need‐Threat Model

Abstract The phenomenon of ostracism has received considerable empirical attention in the last 15 years, in part because of a revitalized interest in the importance of belonging for human social behavior. I present a temporal model that describes and predicts processes and responses at three stages of reactions to ostracism: (a) reflexive, (b) reflective, and (c) resignation. The reflexive pain response triggers threats to four fundamental needs and directs the individuals attention to reflect on the meaning and importance of the ostracism episode, leading to coping responses that serve to fortify the threatened need(s). Persistent exposure to ostracism over time depletes the resources necessary to motivate the individual to fortify threatened needs, thus leading eventually to resignation, alienation, helplessness, and depression. I conclude with a call for more research, especially on the effects of ostracism on groups, and on possible buffering mechanisms that reduce the long‐term negative consequences of ostracism.