Cited by 669Death Anxiety and Social ExclusionSocial and Intergroup PsychologyBullying, Victimization, and Aggression

Social Ostracism by Coworkers: Does Rejection Lead to Loafing or Compensation?

Williams, Kipling D., Sommer, Kristin L.·1997·Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Abstract

A new theoretical model and research paradigm are introduced to investigate the phenomenon of social ostracism-being ignored by others who are in one's presence. The authors examined the effects of social ostracism on individuals' subsequent contributions to a group task. Social loafing Optically occurs on collective tasks. However; to regain their sense of belonging to the group, the authors expected ostracized individuals to socially compensate-to work harder collectively than coactively. Participants were asked to generate as many uses as they could for an object, either coactively or collectively with two others who had either ostracized or included them in an earlier ball-tossing exchange. Ostracized females socially compensated, whereas nonostracized females neither loafed nor compensated. Ostracized and nonostracized males socially loafed. Based on these data and the accompanying attributional and nonverbal analyses, the authors surmised that males and females interpret and respond to social ostracism differently.

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Crossref · 10.1177/0146167297237003

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  • Self-reports of distress induced by Cyberball seem to be less amenable to moderation by individual differences, such as participant's sex, levels of loneliness, or social anxiety.

    “but also that the self-reports of such distress seem to be less amenable to moderation by individual differences, such as the participant’s sex (Williams and Sommer 1997), their levels of loneliness (Wesselmann et al. 2012) or social anxiety (Zadro et al. 2006).”
  • The negative state of isolation can trigger the motivation to seek and engage in social contact.

    “Therefore, the negative state of isolation can trigger the motivation to seek and engage in social contact (Baumeister and Leary, 1995, Maner et al., 2007, Williams and Sommer, 1997), perhaps as an evolutionarily conserved mechanism to maintain social connections (Buss, 1990).”

    From Dorsal raphe dopamine neurons represent the experience of social isolation (2016) · cites this paper as Williams and Sommer, 1997

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Authors
Williams, K. D., & Sommer, K. L.
Affiliations
  • UNSW Sydney (AU)
  • Case Western Reserve University (US)
Corresponding author
  • Williams, Kipling D.
  • Sommer, Kristin L.
Venue
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
Published
1997-07
Volume
23
Issue
7
Pages
693-706
ISSN
  • 0146-1672 (ISSN-L)
  • 1552-7433
OpenAlex
W2118511810
Cited by
669
References
68
Citations by year
2026: 17 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 39 · 2023: 29 · 2022: 34 · 2021: 43 · 2020: 44 · 2019: 35 · 2018: 25 · 2017: 32 · 2016: 33 · 2015: 32 · 2014: 30 · 2013: 33 · 2012: 30
FWCI
9.92
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression
Keywords
ostracism, social loafing, social compensation, group task performance, gender differences, sense of belonging

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