Work

It's the thought that counts: The role of hostile cognition in shaping aggressive responses to social exclusion.

Year: 2009

Type: article

Abstract: Prior research has confirmed a casual path between social rejection and aggression, but there has been no clear explanation of why social rejection causes aggression. A series of experiments tested the hypothesis that social exclusion increases the inclination to perceive neutral information as hostile, which has implications for aggression. Compared to accepted and control participants, socially excluded participants were more likely to rate aggressive and ambiguous words as similar (Experiment 1a), to complete word fragments with aggressive words (Experiment 1b), and to rate the ambiguous actions of another person as hostile (Experiments 2-4). This hostile cognitive bias among excluded people was related to their aggressive treatment of others who were not involved in the exclusion experience (Experiments 2 and 3) and others with whom participants had no previous contact (Experiment 4). These findings provide a first step in resolving the mystery of why social exclusion produces aggression.

Source: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

DOI: 10.1037/a0013196

Authors: C. Nathan DeWall, Jean M. Twenge, Seth A. Gitter, Roy F. Baumeister

Institutions: University of Kentucky, San Diego State University, Florida State University

Language: English

Topic: Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion

Subfield: Social Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institute of Mental Health

Awards: Self-Control and Stress: A Limited resource model, Destructive Effects of Social Rejection