Thwarting the Need to Belong: Understanding the Interpersonal and Inner Effects of Social Exclusion
Abstract
The need to belong is a powerful motivational basis for interpersonal behavior, and it is thwarted by social exclusion and rejection. Laboratory work has uncovered a destructive set of consequences of being socially excluded, such as increased aggressiveness and reduced helpfulness toward new targets. Rejected persons do, however, exhibit a cautious interest in finding new friends. Theory and intuition associate social exclusion with emotional distress, but laboratory research finds instead that the first response is a reduced sensitivity to pain and an emotional insensitivity that hampers empathy and may contribute to a variety of interpersonal behaviors. Self‐regulation and intelligent thought are also impaired as a direct result of being rejected.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
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?
Threats to interpersonal belonging in the immediate situation stir emotional numbness rather than low state self-esteem.
“Specifically, threats to interpersonal belonging in the immediate situation stir emotional numbness rather than low state self-esteem (Baumeister, Brewer, Tice, & Twenge, 2007; MacDonald & M. R. Leary, 2005).”
From Cultural norm fulfillment, interpersonal belonging, or getting ahead? A large-scale cross-cultural test of three perspectives on the function of self-esteem. (2015) · cites this paper as Baumeister, Brewer, Tice, & Twenge, 2007
Cites
The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation.
Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037//0033-2909.117.3.497 · Cited by 23,245 · see citing works
Self-citationGottfredson, M. R., & Hirschi, T. (1990) · doi:10.1515/9781503621794 · Cited by 10,127 · see citing works
Does Rejection Hurt? An fMRI Study of Social Exclusion
Eisenberger, N. I., Lieberman, M. D., & Williams, K. D. (2003) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1089134 · Cited by 3,849 · see citing works
The relation of empathy to prosocial and related behaviors
Eisenberg, N., & Miller, P. A. (1987) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.101.1.91 · Cited by 2,672 · see citing works
Cyberostracism: effects of being ignored over the Internet
Williams, K. D., Cheung, C. K. T., & Choi, W. (2000) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.79.5.748 · Cited by 2,276 · see citing works
Why Does Social Exclusion Hurt? The Relationship Between Social and Physical Pain.
MacDonald, G., & Leary, M. R. (2005) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.131.2.202 · Cited by 1,712 · see citing works
Social exclusion impairs self-regulation
Baumeister, R. F., DeWall, C. N., Ciarocco, N. J., & Twenge, J. M. (2005) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.88.4.589 · Cited by 1,401 · see citing works
Self-citationSelf-control relies on glucose as a limited energy source: Willpower is more than a metaphor.
Gailliot, M. T., Baumeister, R. F., DeWall, C. N., Maner, J. K., Plant, E. A., Tice, D. M., Brewer, L. E., & Schmeichel, B. J. (2007) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.92.2.325 · Cited by 1,297 · see citing works
Self-citationSocial exclusion decreases prosocial behavior
Twenge, J. M., Baumeister, R. F., DeWall, C. N., Ciarocco, N. J., & Bartels, J. M. (2007) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.92.1.56 · Cited by 1,271 · see citing works
Self-citationZadro, L., Williams, K. D., & Richardson, R. (2004) · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2003.11.006 · Cited by 1,138 · see citing works
Getting a cue: the need to belong and enhanced sensitivity to social cues
Pickett, C. L., Gardner, W. L., & Knowles, M. (2004) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167203262085 · Cited by 862 · see citing works
Twenge, J. M., Catanese, K. R., & Baumeister, R. F. (2003) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.85.3.409 · Cited by 715 · see citing works
Self-citationSocial Exclusion and Selective Memory: How the Need to belong Influences Memory for Social Events
Gardner, W. L., Pickett, C. L., & Brewer, M. B. (2000) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167200266007 · Cited by 578 · see citing works
When inclusion costs and ostracism pays, ostracism still hurts.
van Beest, I., & Williams, K. D. (2006) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.91.5.918 · Cited by 567 · see citing works
The causes, phenomenology, and consequences of hurt feelings.
Leary, M. R., Springer, C., Negel, L., Ansell, E., & Evans, K. (1998) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.74.5.1225 · Cited by 485 · see citing works
On the outside looking in: loneliness and social monitoring
Gardner, W. L., Pickett, C. L., Jefferis, V., & Knowles, M. (2005) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167205277208 · Cited by 358 · see citing works
Herman, B. H., & Panksepp, J. (1978) · Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior · doi:10.1016/0091-3057(78)90167-3 · Cited by 330 · see citing works
Hurt feelings: The neglected emotion.
Leary, M. R., & Springer, C. A. (2001) · Behaving badly: Aversive behaviors in interpersonal relationships. · doi:10.1037/10365-006 · Cited by 232 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Leary et al. (1998; also Leary & Springer, 2000) showed that people associate social rejection with the familiar experience of having one’s feelings hurt and that these feelings are defined by negative mood as well as the emotions of hostility and anxiety.”
Background
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
On Being Rejected: A Meta-Analysis of Experimental Research on Rejection
Gerber, J., & Wheeler, L. (2009) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/j.1745-6924.2009.01158.x · Cited by 498 · see citing works
Automatic emotion regulation after social exclusion: Tuning to positivity.
DeWall, C. N., Twenge, J. M., Koole, S. L., Baumeister, R. F., Marquez, A., & Reid, M. W. (2011) · Emotion · doi:10.1037/a0023534 · Cited by 140 · see citing works
Self-citationArslan, G. (2018) · Child Indicators Research · doi:10.1007/s12187-017-9451-1 · Cited by 91 · see citing works
Gebauer, J. E., Sedikides, C., Wagner, J., Bleidorn, W., Rentfrow, P. J., Potter, J., & Gosling, S. D. (2015) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/pspp0000052 · Cited by 84 · see citing works
Chu, C., Hammock, E. A. D., & Joiner, T. E. (2020) · Journal of Psychiatric Research · doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2019.11.015 · Cited by 38 · see citing works
Hames, J. L., Chiurliza, B., Podlogar, M. C., Smith, A. R., Selby, E. A., Anestis, M. D., & Joiner, T. E. (2015) · Journal of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1002/jclp.22158 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Self‐esteem as a monitor of fundamental psychological need satisfaction
Howell, J. L., Sosa, N., & Osborn, H. J. (2019) · Social and Personality Psychology Compass · doi:10.1111/spc3.12492 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Rajchert, J. (2015) · Europe’s Journal of Psychology · doi:10.5964/ejop.v11i4.934 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
- Authors
- Baumeister, R. F., Brewer, L. E., Tice, D. M., & Twenge, J. M.
- Affiliations
- Florida State University (US)
- San Diego State University (US)
- Venue
- Social and Personality Psychology Compass
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2007-10-18
- Volume
- 1
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 506-520
- ISSN
- 1751-9004 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1975998904
- Cited by
- 312
- References
- 18
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 30 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 30 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 30 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 4.75
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Social and Personality Psychology Compass (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Case Western Reserve University
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Keywords
- social exclusion, need to belong, rejection, aggression, emotional distress, pain sensitivity, empathy, self-regulation, interpersonal behavior, emotional insensitivity
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
