How low can you go? Ostracism by a computer is sufficient to lower self-reported levels of belonging, control, self-esteem, and meaningful existence

Previous research has demonstrated self-reports of lower levels of four fundamental needs as a result of short periods of face-toface ostracism, as well as short periods of Internet ostracism (Cyberball), even when the ostracizing others are unseen, unknown, and not-to-be met. In an attempt to reduce the ostracism experience to a level that would no longer be aversive, we (in Study 1) convinced participants that they were playing Cyberball against a computer, yet still found comparable negative impact compared to when the participants thought they were being ostracized by real others. In Study 2, we took this a step further, and additionally manipulated whether the participants were told the computer or humans were scripted (or told) what to do in the game. Once again, even after removing all remnants of sinister attributions, ostracism was similarly aversive. We interpret these results as strong evidence for a very primitive and automatic adaptive sensitivity to even the slightest hint of social exclusion. 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Ostracism—the act of being excluded and ignored (Williams, 2001)—is ubiquitous. Reviewing the ethological, anthropological, and social psychological literature reveals that ostracism is used by many species, by children and adults, in primitive tribes and modern industrialized societies, as a formal method of reprimand among nations, institutions, and organizations and as an informal emergent reaction on playgrounds and hallways, with large groups, small groups, and dyads. Ostracism is also powerful. Studies have shown that people subjected to ostracism for a short period of time report worsened mood, anger, and lower levels of four state measures of needs proposed by Williams (1997, 2001) to be threatened by ostracism: belonging, control, self-esteem, and meaningful existence. These studies consisted largely of a laboratory-based ball-tossing paradigm, in which participants partook in a spontaneous ball-toss game with two other confederate participants. When the other two individuals began tossing the ball just between themselves, ostracized participants slumped in their chairs, looking despondent, after only 4min. Studies of long-term ostracism report incidences of attempted suicide and depression (Williams & Zadro, 2001), and even mass-shootings (Leary, Kowalski, Smith, & Phillips, 2003). Recently, Williams, Cheung, and Choi (2000) reported that individuals who played a virtual ball-toss game on the computer, ostensibly with others who were logged on to the website, also reported worsened mood and lower need levels. Additionally, if given the opportunity to make spatial judgments with a new group of individuals, ostracized participants were more likely to conform to this group s unanimously incorrect answers. One goal of the Williams et al. (2000) research was to first establish a baseline condition in which ostracism This research was funded by an Australian Research Council Grant to the second author, and comprised part of the first author s doctoral dissertation. We would like to extend our thanks to Bibb Latan e for comments that initially triggered our interest in pursuing this line of inquiry, and Keith Lim and Trevor Case for their technical assistance. * Corresponding authors. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (L. Zadro), [email protected]. edu.au (K.D. Williams). 0022-1031/$ see front matter 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2003.11.006 Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 40 (2004) 560–567 Journal of Experimental Social Psychology www.elsevier.com/locate/jesp would have no effects, and then to add on necessary factors until ostracism had a negative impact on the four needs. The authors were surprised to find out that what they thought would be the baseline turned out to be sufficiently adverse. One goal of the present studies, therefore, was to create conditions even less meaningful than those in the Williams et al. (2000) studies, in order to determine the necessary and sufficient conditions for ostracism to have an aversive impact. To the extent that such a baseline can be established, then we can gain a clearer idea what aspects of ostracism are essential.