The powerful effect that ostracism has on us

Ostracism is a fancy word for being excluded in social situations. We as humans are very social animals, and human interaction is a vital tool to our well being, without it can cause multiple issues such as; loneliness, anger, and frustration.

 We have evolved in a way that being accepted is as important to our health as food and water, this derives from our ancestors where being in a group was necessary for survival. This predisposition is not something that can be easily avoided, our bodies are fine tuned to warn us when it experiences elements of rejection, this is vital in order to avoid further exclusion, you can think of it as almost like an internal reflex, even if you think rejection will not influence you, unconsciously it can still take hold, this is evident in brain scans that show that the part of the brain that is associated with experiencing pain is active when someone is ostracised.

One of the papers I read that aided me in understanding the effects of ostracism illustrates how experimenters contrived a study that simulated the effects of ostracism, except with a twist...
They told the participants that they had to play an online game where the aim was to just pass a ball to another play (There was 3 players), some were told that the players were controlled by the computer and others were told that they were controlled by confederates in other rooms. The aim was to exclude the players from being involved in the ball game by only passing it between two people and not all three. The results surprisingly showed that people felt equally affected by both the computer controlled players and human players. Normally people would assume that being ostracised by a computer would not elicit such feelings but it's quite the contrary.



This study to me, indicates that ostracism is very much an innate, abstract concept to which we have no control over, much like our sub-conscious. It is unfortunate that we are influenced by something that has such an emotional impact on us, ostracism has been linked to school shootings and physical attacks, not to mention the overwhelming loneliness and frustration that can come as a result of being excluded. But it can also double as a motivational tactic, someone may work harder in order to impress or become part of a group, but for obvious reasons there is a very fine line between a little and a lot ostracism, but nonetheless at least it is not all doom and gloom :)

If you would like to learn more follow this link:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103103001823