How low can you go? Ostracism by a computer is sufficient to lower self-reported levels of belonging, control, self-esteem, and meaningful existence

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2003.11.006Get rights and content

Abstract

Previous research has demonstrated self-reports of lower levels of four fundamental needs as a result of short periods of face-to-face ostracism, as well as short periods of Internet ostracism (Cyberball), even when the ostracizing others are unseen, unknown, and not-to-be met. In an attempt to reduce the ostracism experience to a level that would no longer be aversive, we (in Study 1) convinced participants that they were playing Cyberball against a computer, yet still found comparable negative impact compared to when the participants thought they were being ostracized by real others. In Study 2, we took this a step further, and additionally manipulated whether the participants were told the computer or humans were scripted (or told) what to do in the game. Once again, even after removing all remnants of sinister attributions, ostracism was similarly aversive. We interpret these results as strong evidence for a very primitive and automatic adaptive sensitivity to even the slightest hint of social exclusion.

Section snippets

Study 1

In Study 1, participants were either ignored or included during Cyberball—a cyber analogue of a ball-tossing game (Williams et al., 2000, Williams et al., 2002)—by two other players whose identity was manipulated. Targets were told that they were playing Cyberball with either two computer-generated players or two human players prior to the start of the game. If the identity of the source is an important component in determining the aversiveness of ostracism, then targets who are ostracized by

Study 2

In Study 2, we examined whether providing an explicit and external reason for ostracism reduced its negative impact. If ostracized individuals know that the reason they are not being thrown the ball has nothing to do with them personally, but rather the other participants (be they human or computer) are simply following a script, will they still report reduced levels of the four needs? If so, we believe this suggests that it is the perception of one's own ostracism, not one's understanding of

Discussion

The results of Study 2 largely replicated the findings of Study 1. Once again, we found that ostracism resulted in lower self-reported levels of four needs. However, in Study 2 we also found that ostracism resulted in less positive mood than did inclusion. Thus, the inconsistent nature of mood effects following social exclusion that exists in the broader literature was mirrored in our two studies. We regard this inconsistency as evidence of the less than robust effect of social exclusion on

General discussion

The findings of both studies lead us to conclude that ostracism is such an important warning signal that individuals are pre-cognitively attuned to its employment on them. For primates, and many other species (see Williams, 2001), ostracism means death. For humans, it surely signals the potential for hard times, possibly loss of contact with important others, loss of resources, and in some cases, death. Hence, it appears that even the slightest hint of ostracism, in the present case by a

References (16)

  • M Brewer

    Implicit and explicit processes in social judgments and decisions: An integration

  • N.A Eisenberger et al.

    Does rejection hurt? An fMRI study of social exclusion

    Science

    (2003)
  • R.M Kramer

    The sinister attribution error: Paranoid cognition and collective distrust in groups and organizations

    Motivation and Emotion

    (1994)
  • M.R Leary et al.

    Emotional responses to interpersonal rejection

  • M Leary et al.

    Teasing, rejection, and violence: Case studies of the school shootings

    Aggressive Behavior

    (2003)
  • J Panksepp

    Feeling the pain of social loss

    Science

    (2003)
  • B Reeves et al.

    The media equation: How people treat computers, television, and new media like real people and places

    (1996)
  • J.M Twenge et al.

    If you can't join them, beat them: Effects of social exclusion on aggressive behavior

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (2001)
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (824)

View all citing articles on Scopus

This research was funded by an Australian Research Council Grant to the second author, and comprised part of the first author's doctoral dissertation. We would like to extend our thanks to Bibb Latané for comments that initially triggered our interest in pursuing this line of inquiry, and Keith Lim and Trevor Case for their technical assistance.

View full text