The Uncertainty Surrounding Ostracism: Threat Amplifier or Protector?

When justice surrenders: The effect of just-world beliefs on aggression following ostracism

“…Second, ostracism varies in severity, certainty, and motive in daily life (Chen, Law, & Williams, 2010). The present research manipulated the presence or absence of ostracism, and it is unclear whether people with weak general just-world beliefs would behave aggressively following milder forms of ostracism (e.g., information ostracism; Jones, Carter-Sowell, Kelly, & Williams, 2009, and linguistic ostracism;Dotan-Eliaz, Sommer, & Rubin, 2009).…”

The Effect of Ostracism on the Accessibility of Uncertainty-Related Thoughts

“…As was put forth especially by Chen et.al. (22) and Wesselmann et.al. (11), being ostracized prevents the individual from making an inference regarding the relationship they are rejected from as well as the skill for predicting why they are subject to such a rejection and how long this will last; thereby resulting in a feeling of personal uncertainty.…”

“…This finding indicates that the feeling of uncertainty mentioned by Wesselman et.al. (11,22) emerges at least in a latent manner.…”

“…Furthermore, Chen et.al. (22) noticed that the effects of ostracism as well as the reactions that occur afterwards might be due to personal uncertainty (see, e.g., 11). However, there is no experiment testing this proposed relationship between ostracism and uncertainty.…”

“…(11) and Chen et.al. (22), ostracism deprives the individual of an explanation regarding the reasons for his/her state. People who are ostracized in their daily lives have sufficient knowledge on neither the reasons for the state they are in nor how long it will last and the future of the relationship in question.…”