An Evolutionary Social Psychological Approach to Studying the Effects of Ostracism

Ostracism—being excluded and ignored—is a pervasive phenomenon that occurs in a variety of contexts and cultures throughout the world. Diary studies indicate it occurs on a daily basis. Ostracism is painful and distressing psychologically to the person experiencing it, even when it is innocuous and brief. Researchers argue humans evolved detection systems so that individuals can accurately detect and avoid ostracism. Several forms of evidence needed to support a psychological adaptation, such as cross-cultural, hunter-gather, medical, phylogenetic, and physiological evidence, support this adaptation argument. However, direct experimental evidence that appropriate detecting (and responding to) ostracism promotes nature’s criteria (i.e., solves fitness-relevant problems focused on survival and reproduction) would help bolster the case for an adaptation. We review the extant literature through the framework of nature’s criteria, and then propose that direct experimental tests of ostracism detection using research methods from evolutionary psychology and animal models will both add further support to an adaptation argument, and offer fruitful ways of approaching unanswered questions in this research area.