Kipling D. Williams - US grants

Abstract

Dr. Kipling Williams of Purdue University proposes to examine the links between ostracism-being ignored and excluded-and aggression. Past research by Williams and others demonstrates two paradoxical effects of ostracism: pro-social responses and anti-social responses. Although people respond pro-socially to ostracism for example by altering their unacceptable behavior, there are also instances in which ostracized individuals react violently, such as recent instances of school shooters. This research proposes to examine empirically the conditions under which ostracism leads to aggressive or anti-social tendencies and responses. First, ostracism is proposed to increase negative emotions and retaliatory response tendencies as a first-level reflexive response, which is moderated toward pro-social response tendencies when time is taken to reflect upon the implications and consequences. Second ostracism is proposed to impact four fundamental needs: belonging, self-esteem, control, and meaningful existence. Aggressive responding is more likely to occur when the needs pertaining to control and meaningful existence are especially threatened, whereas prosocial behavior is expected when ostracism threatens primarily needs related to belonging and self-esteem. Finally, ostracism of groups, or ostracism based upon group membership, is proposed to increase anti-social reaction tendencies more so than ostracism of individuals by other individuals. Other research on discontinuity has shown that group-group interactions are more likely to be characterized by competitiveness and distrust than person-person interactions. Thus, ostracism based upon group level characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, or religion, may be particularly prone to aggressive responses.

This research employs a number of innovative techniques, including a powerful yet simple computer based paradigm called "Cyberball" in which participants are ostracized from a virtual ball toss game. While appearing to be a rather minor and inconsequential form of ostracism, a recent study published in the magazine Science showed how only a few minutes of playing this game resulted in activation of brain's pain center. Another innovative method is the use of Virtual Reality technology to study the effects of feeling excluded, ignored, and being virtually invisible to other people. In addition, this work explores the effectiveness of the disciplinary procedure of "time out" by submitting the results of previously published work to a meta-analysis. This program broadens the participation of underrepresented groups and has the potential to benefit society in the areas of promoting positive educational environments and preventing harmful side effects that can result in school violence and, at a broader level, terrorism.

The effect of ostracism -- being ignored and excluded, also known as social exclusion -- has attracted substantial research interest in the last twenty years. Research has shown that being ostracized is painful and distressing, and leads to a variety of consequences. Regions of the brain that are associated with physical pain are activated when an individual is ostracized for as little as two minutes. Ostracized individuals suffer a loss of belonging, lowered self-esteem, a sense of helplessness, and existential invisibility. These thwarted needs lead to poor decision-making, depression, diminished self-regulation, heightened aggression, and greater susceptibility to social influence. Young children who have endured ostracism are at risk in their adolescence; adolescents exposed to ostracism show greater vulnerability to risky sex and drug usage. The most widely used research tool to study ostracism is a virtual online platform created by Dr. Kipling Williams and his students in 1998. This freely available program allows for the experimental manipulation of inclusion and ostracism by the other "players" in the game. These players are actually programmed by the experimenter to include the participant or not. This program can also be used to observe and test hypotheses related to discrimination, by tracking which computerized player the participant engages. This platform has been used test hypotheses by researchers from nearly all subfields of psychology, as well as from pediatrics, psychiatry, medicine, and neuroscience as this software platform is particularly well suited for use in fMRI studies. Well over 20,000 participants have participated in research using the platform worldwide. There are now over 150 published articles by researchers using the platform, and the demand is growing. The current platform, however, is limited in its scope and application, and is in dire need of upgrading. The current computer program is not easily accessible to all researchers, does not work on all operating systems and web browsers, and the options for variations and manipulations available to researchers is limited. With NSF support, Dr. Williams and his colleagues will substantial upgrade the platform to develop the program's functionality. As a result, in addition to its prior uses, the new program will be expanded to become a useful tool for examining group-level effects of social exclusion, as well many other requested variations for use by researchers in other labs. The proposed upgrade will make the computer program easier to access on multiple computer platforms and devices, and easier to create variations of interest to researchers. Current demand suggests that an improved version will aid researchers in understanding the impact of ostracism, discover downstream negative consequences, and devise effective interventions that will aid in functional coping. In sum, this proposal provide all scholars interested in studying ostracism with a larger set of options, both technical and psychological, for doing so.