Cited by 1,712Death Anxiety and Social ExclusionBullying, Victimization, and AggressionNeuroendocrine regulation and behavior

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 269 of the 272 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Why Does Social Exclusion Hurt? The Relationship Between Social and Physical Pain.

MacDonald, Geoff, Leary, Mark R.·2005·Psychological Bulletin

Abstract

The authors forward the hypothesis that social exclusion is experienced as painful because reactions to rejection are mediated by aspects of the physical pain system. The authors begin by presenting the theory that overlap between social and physical pain was an evolutionary development to aid social animals in responding to threats to inclusion. The authors then review evidence showing that humans demonstrate convergence between the 2 types of pain in thought, emotion, and behavior, and demonstrate, primarily through nonhuman animal research, that social and physical pain share common physiological mechanisms. Finally, the authors explore the implications of social pain theory for rejection-elicited aggression and physical pain disorders.

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1037/0033-2909.131.2.202

Cites

269 of 269 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Citations

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

3 of the 272 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 14

  1. 10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497 · DOI · Paper page
  2. Craig, 1999, Medulla to thalamus., 183
  3. Craig, 2000, Crying as an indicator of pain in infants., 23
  4. Fine, 1997, Anger and hurt in response to provocation: Relationship to psychological adjustment., Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 12, 325
  5. Frijda, 1986, The emotions.
  6. 10.1037/0022-3514.73.5.1038 · DOI · Paper page
  7. Leary, 2003, Individual differences in trait self-esteem: A theoretical integration., 401
  8. MacLean, 1993, Cerebral evolution of emotion., 67
  9. Melzack, 1968, Sensory, motivational, and central control determinants of pain: A new conceptual model., 423
  10. Melzack, 1996, The challenge of pain
  11. Roberts, 1998, The associations between adult attachment and couple violence: The role of communication patterns and relationship satisfaction., 317
  12. Rozin, 1993, Disgust., 575
  13. Simon, 1998, Management of somatoform and factitious disorders., 408
  14. Ulrich, 1965, Pain-elicited aggression., The Psychological Record, 15, 111

Cited by

Sorted by citations

See all 1,712

Metadata

Authors
MacDonald, G., & Leary, M. R.
Affiliations
  • The University of Queensland (AU)
  • Wake Forest University (US)
Venue
Psychological Bulletin
Published
2005-03
Volume
131
Issue
2
Pages
202-223
ISSN
  • 0033-2909 (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-1455
OpenAlex
W2170436315
Cited by
1,712
References
272
Citations by year
2026: 71 · 2025: 106 · 2024: 103 · 2023: 92 · 2022: 102 · 2021: 96 · 2020: 89 · 2019: 87 · 2018: 81 · 2017: 92 · 2016: 79 · 2015: 91 · 2014: 122 · 2013: 103 · 2012: 83
FWCI
4.78
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Psychological Bulletin (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
Keywords
social exclusion, social pain, bodily pain, rejection, evolutionary psychology, aggression, pain disorders
MeSH terms
Gyrus Cinguli, Humans, Narcotics, Oxytocin, Pain, Psychological Theory, Social Alienation

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review