Who is more willing to engage in social rejection? The roles of self-esteem, rejection sensitivity, and negative affect in social rejection decisions

How do self-schemas and their consequences guide would-be-rejectors? When making decisions about whether to reject, individuals consider the difficulty and emotional consequences of rejecting, and both considerations are likely to involve self-schemas. In three preregistered studies, we examine the roles of self-esteem, rejection sensitivity, and symptoms of depression and anxiety in rejection decisions. In an initial set of studies (N1a = 214, N1b = 264), participants forecast their willingness to reject and their emotional responses in friendship (Study 1a) and romantic (Study 1a-1b) vignettes. In Study 2 (N2 = 259), participants who recently rejected rated that experience on the same measures. Correlates of negative self-schema were associated with negative emotions. Self-esteem, rejection sensitivity, and general distress were associated with forecasted difficulty rejecting, but only anxiety and general distress were associated with retrospectively reported increased difficulty. Taken together, psychological distress may decrease willingness to reject in a way that participants cannot predict.

Motives matter: The psychological experience of ostracizing among sources

Individuals ostracize others for myriad reasons, yet the influence of those reasons on the psychological experience of ostracizing is yet unknown. Two studies aimed to determine the emotional and behavioral sequelae of ostracizing for different motives, directly comparing punitive to defensive motives. We focused our examination on a suite of emotions expected to arise as a function of (1) the situations that give rise to ostracizing for punitive and defensive reasons (anger, fear, anxiety, and sadness) and (2) the act of ostracizing itself (i.e., pride and guilt). The research employed a novel paradigm to induce the experience of ostracizing for defensive or punitive motives. Study 1 (N = 372) investigated sources' experienced emotion as a function of motive. Study 2 (N = 743) expanded consideration to behavioral intentions, including intentions to continue ostracizing and to recruit others to join in ostracizing the target. Across both studies and supported by an internal meta-analysis, ostracizing for defensive reasons was associated with higher levels of guilt, fear, and anxiety, and lower levels of anger, compared to ostracizing for punitive reasons. Neither sadness nor positive emotion (pride or happiness) differed significantly according to motive in either study. Moreover, guilt and anger mediated the impact of motive on intentions to continue ostracizing and recruit others to join them in ostracizing. To the extent that punitive sources experienced anger relative to defensive sources, they expressed greater intentions to continue ostracizing the target and to recruit others to join in ostracizing the target. To the extent that defensive sources experienced guilt relative to punitive sources, they reported reduced intentions to continue ostracizing the target. Findings add to a growing literature on ostracism sources, and highlight the mediating role of sources' emotion in guiding future actions.

Pain of Threatened Self: Explicit and Implicit Self-Esteem, Cortisol Responses to a Social Threat and Pain Perception

Background: Rejection, injustice, and exclusion from meaningful interpersonal relationships are often extremely painful and stress-generating experiences. This study aimed to define the role of explicit and implicit self-esteem in pain perception as a component of the physiological-psychological system that regulates the body's response to stress associated with the threat of social rejection. Methods: In total, 360 individuals participated in this study. The measurement of cortisol in saliva, the assessment of pain thresholds using thermal stimuli, the IAT to assess implicit self-esteem, and a questionnaire on global self-esteem and social pain were used. The study included three measurements: baseline and 15 and 45 min after the application of a laboratory socially threatening stimulus (the Trier Social Stress Test). Results: People experiencing chronic social pain (CSP) are more likely to have fragile self-esteem, higher pain thresholds, and tend to experience reduced pain tolerance in situations of acute social threat than people without CSP experience. In people with CSP and fragile self-esteem, after the introduction of a social threat, an increase in pain tolerance was observed along with a longer-lasting increase in cortisol levels. Conclusions: Fragile self-esteem, along with feelings of chronic exclusion, injustice, and rejection, may prolong stress reactions and produce a hypoalgesic effect.

Emotional experiences of ghosting

Although ghosting (i.e., unilaterally ending a relationship by ceasing communication) has only recently entered the lexicon, it is a regularly used form of relationship dissolution. However, little research has examined the emotional experiences of ghosting, particularly the experiences of those on both sides of the ghosting process. In a multi-method study, participants who had both ghosted and been ghosted in previous romantic relationships (N = 80) provided narratives of their experiences and completed questionnaires. The narrative responses were analyzed by coders and by using LIWC. Ghosters and ghostees used similar overall levels of positively and negatively valenced words to describe their experiences, but ghosters were more likely to express guilt and relief, whereas ghostees were more likely to express sadness and hurt feelings. Ghostees also experienced more of a threat to their fundamental needs - control, self-esteem, belongingness, meaningful existence - than ghosters.

Paradox mindset as an equalizer: A moderated mediated perspective on workplace ostracism

Incorporating the conservation of resources theory as a comprehensive framework, this study investigates a cohesive conceptual model analyzing the impact of workplace ostracism on employees' innovative work behavior (IWB). The investigation further delves into the mediating influence of perceived control and the moderating roles of paradox mindset and support for innovation. Data collection employed a survey approach involving three-time lags through questionnaires administered to 513 employees within Pakistan's public sector organizations. The hypothesized relationships were evaluated using conditional process modeling. Our research sheds light on how perceived control mitigates the negative impact of ostracism. The paradox mindset is identified as a key moderator influencing cognitive resources and navigating ostracism. Support for innovation enhances the link between perceived control and innovative work behavior. In addition, limitations, future research directions, and implications of our findings for fostering creative workplaces are also discussed.

Gender biases in attributions of blame for workplace mistreatment: a video experiment on the effect of perpetrator and target gender

Introduction

Ambiguous psychological workplace mistreatment such as insulting or ignoring a co-worker might trigger gender bias. This study aims to examine whether female perpetrators receive more moral anger and blame from observers than men.

Methods

A sample of Austrian workforce members (n = 880, 55.00% women, 44.89% men, 0.11% diverse) responded to standardized videos showing a perpetrator's angry insult and a perpetrator's exclusion of a co-worker from lunch. In total, we edited 32 video clips with four female and four male professional actors. We manipulated the following variables: 2 perpetrator gender (male/female) * 2 target gender (male/female) * 2 types of mistreatment (insult/exclusion).

Results

As hypothesized, linear mixed-effects modeling revealed more moral anger and attributions of intent against female perpetrators than against men. Significant three-way interactions showed that female perpetrators were judged more harshly than men when the target was female and the mistreatment was exclusion. Female targets were blamed less when the perpetrator was female rather than male. Male targets did not evoke attributional biases. Observer gender had no significant interaction with perpetrator or target gender.

Discussion

Our findings suggest that gender biases in perpetrator-blaming are dependent on target gender and type of mistreatment. The stereotype of women having it out for other women or being "too sensitive" when mistreated by men requires more attention in organizational anti-bias trainings.

The Relationship between Meaning in Life and the Childhood Family Environment among Emerging Adults

This study investigates the impact of the childhood family environment on reported meaning in life among emerging adults (n = 507) at a private, urban, religious university. This study found that participants who reported growing up in an emotionally warm family environment ultimately reported more meaning in life as adults and that this effect was mediated by loneliness. This suggests that people from emotionally cold and rejecting early family environments may struggle with meaning in life as adults because they are lonelier. This research contributes a developmental perspective to understanding meaning in life. The public health implications of these findings are discussed. Future research should consider accounting for the effects of early life experiences on meaning in life.

Vicarious ostracism reduces observers' sense of agency

Previous findings revealed that social ostracism reduces people's implicit sense of agency. Based on theoretical claims that observed behavior of others may be cognitively represented similarly to one's own behavior, we conducted two experiments to test whether people's own sense of agency can also be impaired by observed social exclusion of others. In Experiment 1, participants recalled episodes referring to vicarious ostracism or inclusion before completing a temporal interval estimation task to assess intentional binding effects (an established implicit measure of the sense of agency). In Experiment 2, participants immersed into a newly designed virtual Cyberball game, in which they witnessed a vicarious ostracism or inclusion scenario, before completing a Libet-style temporal estimation task and an agency questionnaire (an explicit measure of the sense of agency). The findings show, for the first time, that vicarious ostracism reduces both implicit and explicit measures of agency in observers.

When ostracism is mandated: COVID-19, social distancing, and psychological needs

Social distancing to limit the spread of COVID-19 poses a unique psychological challenge, especially in light of evidence for the importance of even minimal cues of inclusion. In a German (N = 546) and a US (N = 199) sample, we examined the impact of work-related social distancing on the outcomes of ostracism, measuring need fulfillment in self-esteem, belonging, control, and meaning. Overall, social distancing was associated with decreased need fulfillment. German participants reported a higher need fulfillment compared to American participants. Compared to previous studies, social distancing impacted self-related need fulfillment less than experimental manipulations of ostracism, however more so than the baseline condition of inclusion. Working, while social distancing was associated with greater need fulfillment, as was identifying as male. Women reported lower need fulfillment overall and this difference was mediated by the need to belong. Results are discussed in terms of understanding self-related needs in different contexts of isolation.

Putting a Spotlight on the Ostracizer: Intentional Workplace Ostracism Motives

Workplace ostracism is a prevalent and detrimental type of mistreatment. To curtail this harmful behavior, researchers need to identify who is more likely to intentionally ostracize others at work and the motives that drive them to do so. Past reviews of workplace ostracism focus primarily on the outcomes of ostracism, and the few that address the antecedents often examine a limited set of variables. We examined themes in the ostracism literature and determined that employees intentionally ostracize others due to either punitive or defensive motives. Punitive motives are focused on protecting the interests of the group, whereas defensive motives pertain to defending the interests of the self. We present a model of the ostracizer based on these motives and the associated perceptions of threat and negative emotions that precipitate ostracism. Our model provides an extension of the workplace ostracism literature by presenting a testable theoretical framework, rooted in appraisal theory, to explain why and when employees are likely to ostracize others at work. We also provided suggestions for an expansion of the ostracizer motives literature, with the goal of encouraging research that provides greater understanding of the perspective of the ostracizer.

Outcasts and saboteurs: Intervention strategies to reduce the negative effects of social exclusion on team outcomes

The experience of social exclusion in the workplace adversely impacts employees’ well-being, job satisfaction, and productivity, and no one quite knows what to do about it. In this report, we describe the development and testing of three ostracism interventions, designed to help people cope with the negative effects of being excluded by one’s team. Across five studies, participants were assigned to a virtual ball toss game where they were either included or excluded by their teammates. Afterwards, they were given a task where they could earn money for themselves, for their entire team, or for an unrelated group (charity). Excluded participants worked less hard for their teams (even when this meant sacrificing their own earnings). This sabotage effect was specific, meaning that excluded individuals worked less hard on behalf of their teams, but not when they worked for themselves or for charity. We devised three intervention strategies—perspective, mentorship, and empowerment—to combat the negative effects of ostracism on people’s willingness to work for their teams. These interventions were successful; each increased people’s persistence in a team-based reward task, and in some cases, even raised the outcomes of excluded teammates to levels observed in included teammates. The effectiveness of these interventions also replicated successfully, using preregistered hypotheses, methods, and analyses. These studies add novel insights to a variety of fields that have examined the consequences of social exclusion, including social psychology, organizational behavior, and management science.

Does It Matter What I Say? Using Language to Examine Reactions to Ostracism as It Occurs

Most of our knowledge related to how social exclusion affects those who ostracize and those who are being ostracized is based on questionnaires administered after the ostracism situation is over. In this research, we strived to further our understanding of the internal dynamics of an ostracism situation. We therefore examined individuals' language-specifically, function words-as a behavior indicative of psychological processes and emergent states that can be unobtrusively recorded right in the situation. In online chats, 128 participants talked about a personal topic in groups of three. In the experimental group (n = 79), two conversation partners ignored every contribution by the third. We found that, compared to the control group, these targets of ostracism used language indicative of a self-focus and worsened mood, but not of social focus or positivity, although positivity was related to a writer's likeability. Sources of ostracism used language suggesting that they were distancing themselves from the situation, and they further engaged in victim derogation. We discuss how our results highlight the severity and potential self-sustainability of ostracism.

Exploring barriers to sexual transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV testing among young black sub-Sahara African (BSSA) communities in diaspora, UK

Purpose

Sexual transmitted infections (STIs) are associated with high stigma leading to poor sexual health-seeking behaviour and mental health problems. Although human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention has generally been successful in many communities across the world, statistics for young people have remained relatively low, especially among most affected communities such as the black sub-Sahara African (BSSA) communities. This paper aims to explore the barriers to STIs and HIV testing among young BSSA communities living in the UK.

Design/methodology/approach

The research study used an explorative qualitative approach. The study included 6 focus groups comprising 10 people each (N = 60), and 12 one-to-one follow-up interviews were held with the research participants. Two one-to-one follow-up interviews were held from each focus group (N = 12).

Findings

The study found that perceived risk taking, perceived HIV test embarrassment, sexual health professionals’ attitudes, perceived HIV as death sentence, limited educational awareness and general HIV stigma prevented research participants from testing and impacted on their mental health well-being.

Originality/value

There is a need to increase sexual health and mental health education awareness among young BSSA communities. More importantly culturally sensitive interventions to reduce the impact of HIV stigma need to be rolled out in different diverse communities. This study is the first of its kind to look at the barriers affecting young BSSA communities in accessing sexual health testing services in the UK.

Grey shade of work environment triad – effect of supervisor ostracism and perceived organizational obstruction on employees' behaviour: a moderated-mediation model

Purpose

This study, based on the moderated-mediation model, investigates the indirect effect of facades of conformity in the relationship between supervisor ostracism and unethical work behaviour. Furthermore, this study tested the moderating role of perceived organizational obstruction in the aforementioned relationship through facades of conformity.

Design/methodology/approach

Employing a multi-wave and two-source data from employees and peers (n = 264) of the services sector in Pakistan, the authors tested the proposed framework using Hayes and Preacher moderated-mediation technique.

Findings

The findings reflect that supervisor ostracism encourages unethical behaviour at the workplace. Further, results revealed that facades of conformity mediated this direct relationship. Moreover, the authors found that perceived organizational obstruction moderated the relationship between supervisor ostracism and facades of conformity. Results also confirm that perceived organizational obstruction moderates the mediated relationship.

Research limitations/implications

The paper concludes with a discussion, managerial implications, limitations and directions for future research.

Originality/value

This study added value in the literature of supervisor ostracism, facades of conformity, unethical work behaviour and perceived organizational obstruction.

Why do I contribute to organizational learning when I am ostracized? A moderated mediation analysis

Drawing on social exchange and emotional regulation perspectives, this study investigates the role of emotional suppression in reducing the detrimental effects of workplace ostracism on organizational learning. Based on the responses of 162 participants from the financial industry, and with the application of moderated mediation analysis, the findings demonstrate that workplace ostracism is mediated by employee silence, which has a negative effect on organizational learning. Interestingly, however, the results exhibit that emotional suppression operates as a buffer between workplace ostracism, employee silence and organizational learning, which leads to the achievement of organizational learning motives. Therefore, the silent employees, who experience workplace ostracism, may still be contributing toward organizational learning, if they are proficient in suppressing their emotions. Given that, the study implies that emotional suppression is fundamentally important to reduce the injurious outcomes of workplace ostracism, in the contemporary organizational settings, particularly with regard to organizational learning.

Workplace ostracism and employee creativity: role of defensive silence and psychological empowerment

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of workplace ostracism and defensive silence on employee behavior within an organization. The paper attempts to study the impact of workplace ostracism on employee creativity. The paper also aims to train the employees to withstand the negative effects of workplace ostracism.

Design/methodology/approach

This is an empirical study. Primary data were collected from 454 employees working in the service sector in India. The data were collected from an IT sector unit, an insurance company and a bank. Utmost care was taken in order to select organizations where there was frequent interaction between the supervisors and co-workers in order to measure the relevant variables. Mean, standard deviation and correlation were used for descriptive studies, and structural equation modeling was used to measure several dimensions of the hypothesized model. A bootstrap method is used to measure the impact of workplace ostracism on employee creativity.

Findings

The study found that defensive silence mediates between workplace ostracism and employee creativity and psychological empowerment moderates between workplace ostracism and employee creativity. Workplace ostracism negatively effects employee creativity and positively influences defensive silence. The study reveals the moderating effect of psychological empowerment on workplace ostracism and employee creativity such that low levels of psychological empowerment negatively influences employee creativity and high level of psychological empowerment has a positive effect on employee creativity.

Practical implications

Workplace ostracism is proved to be a stressor. The study contributes to the literature on stressor–strain relationship workplace ostracism and employee creativity. Psychological empowerment has indirect influence on workplace ostracism and employee creativity. Organizations may train employees to combat the negative effects of workplace ostracism through concepts like psychological empowerment.

Originality/value

The study is one of its kind as it aimed to measure the impact of workplace ostracism on employee creativity. Though there are several studies on workplace ostracism, its influence on employee creativity perhaps is covered by the present study.

Self-esteem modulates the ERP processing of emotional intensity in happy and angry faces

Previous studies have shown that self-esteem modulates attentional responses to emotional stimuli. However, it is well known that emotional stimuli can vary in intensity. The main objective of the present study was to further investigate self-esteem related emotional intensity processing in happy and anger faces. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while 27 high-esteem versus 27 low self-esteem participants carried out a visual oddball task, with neutral faces as the standard stimuli and deviant stimuli varying on valence (happy and anger) and intensity (40%, 70%, and 100% emotive) dimensions. The results showed only high self-esteem people, instead of those with low self-esteem, displayed significant emotion intensity effects for 100% than for 70% happy faces in P3 component. On the other hand, only people with low self-esteem exhibited pronounced intensity effects for anger faces in P3 amplitudes. Moreover, only people with low self-esteem displayed significant intensity effects for 100% compared to both 70% and 40% anger stimuli in N2 amplitudes at central sites. These findings indicate that high self-esteem individuals were typically more susceptible to highly as well as mildly positive stimuli yet less reactive to negative stimuli compared with people with low self-esteem.

Incidental ostracism emerges from simple learning mechanisms

Ostracism, or social exclusion, is widespread and associated with a range of detrimental psychological and social outcomes. Ostracism is typically explained as instrumental punishment of free-riders or deviants. However, this instrumental account fails to explain many of the features of real-world ostracism, including its prevalence. Here we hypothesized that ostracism can emerge incidentally (non-instrumentally) when people choose partners in social interactions, and that this process is driven by simple learning mechanisms. We tested this hypothesis in four experiments (n = 456) with economic games in dynamic social networks. Contrary to the instrumental account of ostracism, we find that the targets of ostracism are not primarily free-riders. Instead, incidental initial variability in choosing partners for social interactions predicts later ostracism better than the instrumental account. Using computational modelling, we show that simple reinforcement learning mechanisms explain the incidental emergence of ostracism, and that they do so better than a formalization of the instrumental account. Finally, we leveraged these reinforcement learning mechanisms to experimentally reduce incidental ostracism. Our results demonstrate that ostracism is more incidental than previously assumed and can arise from basic forms of learning. They also show that the same mechanisms that result in incidental ostracism can help to reduce its emergence.

Ostracizing targets of workplace sexual harassment before and after the #MeToo movement

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the connections between sexual harassment and ostracism both before and after the modern day #MeToo movement. It outlines how the birth of the #MeToo movement lessened the impact of ostracism, empowering victims to report their abusers.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper provides an overview of the ostracism literature, and discusses why ostracism has historically prevented individuals from disclosing workplace abuse. It also examines recent and historical cases of sexual harassment where ostracism has both inhibited targets of sexual harassment from reporting and harmed those who stood up for their right not to be harassed.

Findings

Both purposeful and non-purposeful ostracism have negative impacts on employees and organizations as a whole, and the fear of ostracism prevented many from disclosing harassment and abuse in the workplace. The #MeToo movement, by nature, is antithetical to ostracism by building community and freeing people to seek justice. This paper makes practical recommendations for organizations that wish to help prevent ostracism as a response to workplace sexual harassment disclosure.

Research limitations/implications

Both purposeful and non-purposeful ostracism have negative impacts on employees and organizations as a whole, and the fear of ostracism prevent many from disclosing harassment and abuse in the workplace. The #MeToo movement by nature is antithetical to ostracism, building community and freeing people to seek justice. This paper makes practical recommendations for organizations that wish to prevent ostracism as a response to workplace sexual harassment disclosure. Additionally, it provides future research directions to explore the empirical link between the disclosure of sexual harassment and ostracism.

Originality/value

This paper analyzes a crucial barrier to reporting sexual harassment. It both examines the consequences of ostracism and highlights how the threat of ostracism can be overcome through intentional organizational efforts.

Engaging in social rejection may be riskier for women

People often worry how others will perceive them if they socially reject others, but do women have more to fear than men? Although previous research has shown that women are perceived negatively for behaving in counter-stereotypical ways, research on backlash has focused on business settings. The present research applies backlash theory to examine how women are perceived for engaging in social rejection. The findings suggest that backlash may operate differently in social rejection because only men punish women for rejecting. Across four studies, the present research found that (1) women felt they were more likely to be penalized for engaging in social rejection than men, (2) women were less willing to endorse social rejection than men, and (3) men, but not women, viewed female rejectors in a more negative manner than male rejectors.

Hypoglycaemic unawareness: A systematic review of qualitative studies of significant others' (SO) supportive interventions for patients with diabetes mellitus

BACKGROUND

Hypoglycemia unawareness (HU) has been attributed to both a downward shift in central nervous system (CNS)-triggered sympatho-adrenal responses to low glycaemic thresholds and a subsequent loss of adrenergic symptoms, which, in addition, to cerebral cortex adaptations permit normal function under hypoglycaemic conditions. Both of these mechanisms are brought about by recurring hypoglycemic events (hypoglycemia-associate autonomic failure, HAAF). This can contribute to repetitive cycles of increasingly severe hypoglycaemia, the consequences of which have considerable impact on relatives and significant others (SO) when providing care to patients with diabetes.

METHODS

A Systematic Review (SR) of 639 qualitative studies was carried out in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review (PRISMA) principles. The search strategy was developed using MeSH terms for a range of electronic databases: CINAHL, Pubmed, EMBASE, Medline, AMED and ASSIA were systematically searched in order to identify a variety of literature relevant to the review topic. Four duplicate studies were removed and a further 630 studies were excluded due to being irrelevant. Five qualitative studies were retained and analysed.

RESULTS

The three resultant findings from the literature appraised were i) Experiences and views of Significant Others' (SO) with adult relatives that have HU ii) Support needs of SO and iii) Health professionals interventions to address SO support needs and improve overall HU care. A clear finding was that SO experience difficulties managing HU and this can impact on the relationships that SO and HU patients have. Support needs of SO highlighted were both educational and psychological in nature, with there being a requirement for additional raised awareness within the wider community.

CONCLUSION

It is essential that healthcare professionals offer support, such as teaching and support groups. In addition, providing interventions into improving family knowledge of diabetes and support with regard to psychosocial, behavioural and practical support for the person with diabetes. Moreover, improving resources for families to improve diabetes care. However, as the literature was of a qualitative nature, future recommendations would be quantitative research into these suggested nursing implementations to quantitatively assess their usefulness in practice.

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

BACKGROUND 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.

The impact of ethical leadership on organizational citizenship behavior

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the relationship between ethical leadership and employee organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), specifically the mechanisms through which ethical leadership impacts employee OCB, and the moderating role of workplace ostracism.

Design/methodology/approach

The study used the survey-based dyad data collected from middle management team members and their immediate subordinates in Chinese companies. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the research hypothesis.

Findings

The empirical findings indicate that ethical leadership positively influences employee OCB. Organizational commitment mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and employee OCB. Furthermore, the effect of ethical leadership on employee OCB directly and indirectly (via organizational commitment) is moderated by workplace ostracism.

Originality/value

This paper adds to knowledge about the relationship between ethical leadership and employee OCB and contributes to better understand workplace ostracism.

Who Are the Children Most Vulnerable to Social Exclusion? The Moderating Role of Self-Esteem, Popularity, and Nonverbal Intelligence on Cognitive Performance Following Social Exclusion

Social exclusion has a profound emotional impact on children. However, there is still limited and partly conflicting experimental evidence for the possible effect of social exclusion on children's cognitive performance. In the present study, we tested the possibility that some children are more vulnerable than others to the negative effects of social exclusion on cognitive performance. We selected 4 potential candidates that could moderate the effects of social exclusion: relational self-esteem, peer ratings of popularity, rejection sensitivity and nonverbal intelligence. Individual differences in these 4 potential moderating factors were first assessed in a sample of 318 children (45.6 % females; mean age = 9.92 years). Then, in a subsequent experimental session, the participants were either socially included or excluded using a typical manipulation (i.e., the Cyberball paradigm). Following the manipulation, the children's cognitive performance was assessed using a logical reasoning test. The results showed that the children with lower scores for relational self-esteem (the bottom 37.46 % of the sample), lower popularity (43.49 %) or weaker nonverbal intelligence (37.80 %) performed worse on the logical reasoning test following social exclusion. Moreover, children with combined low self-esteem, popularity and nonverbal intelligence were the most affected by social exclusion. This study identified factors that make some children more vulnerable to the negative effects of social exclusion. Overall, the present work underscores the value of considering basic cognitive and relational individual differences when developing interventions aimed at preventing the negative effects of social exclusion among children.

When Saying Sorry May Not Help: The Impact of Apologies on Social Rejections

If you have to socially reject someone, will it help to apologize? Social rejection is a painful emotional experience for targets, yet research has been silent on recommendations for rejectors. Across three sets of studies, apologies increased hurt feelings and the need to express forgiveness but did not increase feelings of forgiveness. The investigation of hurt feelings arising from a social rejection is challenging because previous research has shown that participants are reluctant to admit they felt hurt by the rejection. The present research addressed the self-report issue in two ways. First, participants rated how much social rejections would hurt someone’s feelings as a function of whether an apology was included across various social rejection scenarios (Studies 1a–e). Second, aggressive behavior was measured in response to face-to-face social rejections that were manipulated to include or exclude apologies (Studies 2a–c). More specifically, Studies 1a–e (N = 1096) found that although individuals sometimes use apologies in social rejections, social rejections with apologies are associated with higher levels of explicit hurt feelings. Studies 2a–c (N = 355) manipulated the presence of an apology in face-to-face social rejections and found that social rejections with apologies cause more aggressive behavior. As in previous research, participants are reluctant to admit to feeling hurt. Finally, Study 3 (N = 426) found that in response to social rejections with apologies, individuals feel more compelled to express forgiveness despite not actually feeling more forgiveness. Implications for the role of language in social rejections are discussed.

The mediating effects of organization-based self-esteem for the relationship between workplace ostracism and workplace behaviors

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating effects of organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) for the relationship between workplace ostracism with helping behavior, voicing behavior, in-role behavior, and deviant behavior. The workplace has now become a social context where ostracism occurs and the study emphasizes how ostracism can affect workplace behaviors.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was designed using a three-wave self-reported survey. Confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and bootstrapping for indirect effects were conducted to test the study’s hypotheses.

Findings

The study found OBSE to fully mediate the relationship between workplace ostracism and helping behavior, voicing behavior, and in-role behavior, while OBSE partially mediated workplace ostracism and deviant behavior as workplace ostracism was found to have a direct effect on deviant behavior.

Originality/value

The study explores and empirically tests the mediating effects of OBSE with helping behavior, voicing behavior, in-role behavior, and deviant behavior. Therefore, the study extends research on workplace ostracism by investigating beyond the direct effects of workplace ostracism on workplace behaviors.

Organizational Ostracism: A Potential Framework in Order to Deal with It

Background

Organizational ostracism is defined as a violation of norms that we are suggested to acknowledge at the workplace. It results in the exclusion of one person or multiple persons, and causes damage to our innate need to belong. This kind of behaviorism can be engaged through a hierarchical or nonhierarchical relationship. Three elements interact in the framework of organizational ostracism: the actor, the target, and the institution. Our aim was to describe the different factors interacting with every element in order to produce recommendations targeting to prevent the occurrence of such behaviorism in an institution and to help targets of such a violence in order to handle this situation and go forward. As psychological impact of ostracism has frequently been studied in the literature, we focused on its impact on professional tasks.

Methods

We performed a questionnaire-based study about organizational ostracism. This questionnaire was established through an online platform (https://www.sondageonline.com) and made available through the following link: https://goo.gl/forms/KrkVXe3bMEc79cau2. A keyword was sent to all participants. We created a 23-interrogation questionnaire with open and short questions. Nonwritten consent was obtained from all participants.

Results

The actor of ostracism engaged in ostracism, in most of the cases, with other persons without a real purpose. The actor of ostracism had an antecedent of problematic relationship at work in 82.9% of the cases. Of the participants, 58.5% were of the view that ostracism aimed to cause hurt and isolate them. Professional isolation was observed in 58.5% of the cases; 51.2% of the participants tried to improve their work potential and explained their reaction by an intrinsic motivation. The organization atmosphere was judged to be bad in most of the cases.

Conclusion

Our study showed that ostracism was mainly observed in public practice.

Ostracism in Everyday Life: The Effects of Ostracism on Those Who Ostracize

Ostracism is a negative interpersonal experience that has been studied primarily in laboratory settings. Moreover, these studies have focused primarily on how people feel when they have been ostracized. The present study extended this research by investigating ostracism as it occurs in daily life, focusing on how people feel about ostracizing someone. Using a method modeled after the Rochester Interaction Record (RIR), for two weeks, 64 participants (adults residing in the community) described what happened each time they ostracized someone. The questions in the diary were based on Williams's (2001) need-threat model of ostracism. Most ostracism episodes were directed toward people of equal status, and participants reported lower levels of belonging but higher levels of control after ostracizing someone. Punitive ostracism was associated with more positive outcomes for the source than when people ostracized someone for other reasons.

Atimia: A New Paradigm for Investigating How Individuals Feel When Ostracizing Others

To date, researchers studying ostracism (being excluded and ignored) focused on examining the consequences of ostracism. However, researchers have not yet systematically investigated why individuals ostracize others. One impediment to this research is lacking multiple means to successfully induce individuals to be sources, those who ostracize others. Using Cyberball, researchers found participants ostracized a player delaying the game. To aid in systematic research on sources, we developed the game Atimia. In Atimia, players took turns solving remote associate word items and we varied the performance of a computer-controlled player to perform equal to or significantly worse than the group. Without prompting, participants ostracized a poor- versus equal-performing player more and found the poor-performing player burdensome, less likable, and less desirable to work with on a future task. Study outcomes suggest Atimia is a viable paradigm for investigating sources of ostracism.

Ostracizing for a Reason: A Novel Source Paradigm for Examining the Nature and Consequences of Motivated Ostracism

Ostracism, a complex social phenomenon, involves both targets (ostracized individuals) and sources (ostracizers). The current experiment redressed a gap in the ostracism literature by devising a novel, three-phase paradigm to investigate motivated ostracizing. In the current study, 83 females were assigned to one of four conditions during a Cyberball game: motivated sources chose to ostracize an obnoxious fellow player, induced sources ostracized a fellow player at the behest of the experimenter, targets were ostracized, and included participants received the ball proportionately. Analysis of participants' primary needs, emotions, ratings of their co-players, and behavior toward their co-players indicated that being the target of ostracism was a robustly aversive experience. Both motivated and induced sources reported fortified control. Moreover, a motive for ostracizing influenced source experience: induced sources experienced greater levels of negative moral emotion and behaved more prosocially toward their target than motivated sources. The flexibility and demonstrated impact of this novel paradigm adds to the toolkit available to researchers interested in expanding insight into the psychological processes underlying, and the motivational and behavioral outcomes of being, a source of ostracism.

Softening the Blow of Social Exclusion: The Responsive Theory of Social Exclusion

Social exclusion is an interactive process between multiple people, yet previous research has focused almost solely on the negative impacts on targets. What advice is there for people on the other side (i.e., sources) who want to minimize its negative impact and preserve their own reputation? To provide an impetus for research on the interactive nature of exclusion, we propose the Responsive Theory of Social Exclusion. Our theory postulates that targets and sources’ needs are better maintained if sources use clear, explicit verbal communication. We propose that sources have three options: explicit rejection (clearly stating no), ostracism (ignoring), and ambiguous rejection (being unclear). Drawing on psychology, sociology, communications, and business research, we propose that when sources use explicit rejection, targets’ feelings will be less hurt, their needs will be better protected, and sources will experience less backlash and emotional toil than if sources use ambiguous rejection or ostracism. Finally, we propose how the language of rejections may impact both parties.

Tactical Differences in Coping With Rejection Sensitivity: The Role of Prevention Pride

Prevention pride reflects a person’s subjective history of success in preventing negative outcomes, leading to a strategic avoidance of errors of commission (e.g., explicit mistakes) in new situations. Two studies examined the impact of prevention pride on the strategies that highly rejection sensitive (HRS) people use to cope with the anxiety of anticipated rejection and the negative feelings elicited by perceived rejection. It was hypothesized that prevention pride orientation would lead HRS people toward covert and passive rather than overt and active forms of negative coping. Results indicated that HRS individuals who were also high in prevention pride reported increased use of self-silencing, presumably to prevent rejection. When rejection was perceived, however, they expressed hostility passively, by reducing positive behavior (e.g., withdrawing love and support) while inhibiting direct, active acts of hostility (e.g., yelling).

The Role of Simmelian Friendship Ties on Retaliation within Triads

We examine the effect of friendship in triads on retaliatory responses to unfair outcomes that originate from a group member. Drawing on Simmel’s classic discussion of relationships in social triads versus dyads, we hypothesized that the effect of unfairness on retaliation between friends is stronger when the third party in the triad is a mutual friend, rather than a stranger. We also draw on social categorization theory to hypothesize that the effect of unfairness on retaliation between strangers is stronger when the third party is a friend of that stranger than when the triad consists of all strangers. Hypotheses were tested in an experiment where participants negotiated with one another in a three-person exchange network. The results supported our hypothesis that between friends, the increase in retaliation was stronger following an unfair deal when third parties were mutual friends, rather than strangers.