Publications

OBJECTIVE: Ostracism is distressing to those who experience it and people are motivated to find ways to cope, including self-medication or aggression. However, we know little about how alcohol intoxication may affect individuals' reactions to ostracism. This study investigates predictions informed by Alcohol Myopia Theory to observe how alcohol influences changes to one's affect, basic needs fulfillment, and aggression following ostracism.

METHOD: Participants (N = 97) were randomly assigned to either consume an alcohol, placebo, or nonalcohol beverage, and then participate in a game that simulated ostracism. Following this, participants engaged in a task wherein they were able to aggress against an ostensible ostracizer. Affect and basic psychological needs were measured at baseline, post-ostracism, and post-aggression timepoints.

RESULTS: Results indicated that all groups reacted adversely to ostracism and experienced partial recovery toward baseline for negative and positive affect and basic psychological needs. Further, alcohol facilitated recovery across these outcomes post-aggression for participants who felt more intoxicated. Alcohol, relative to the control beverages, increased ostracizer-directed aggression intensity for low trait physically aggressive, but not highly aggressive, people.

CONCLUSION: This randomized study provides novel preliminary evidence suggesting that alcohol enhances aggressive urges toward ostracizers in those who are not typically aggressive. Those who feel more drunk when intoxicated, compared to those who feel less so, may experience greater recovery from ostracism after aggressing toward an ostracizer hinting at potentially pleasurable effects that must be replicated in future studies.

While research on the "ostracism-aggression" link has focused on controlled processes in aggression, little effort has been devoted to examining the relation between ostracism and automatic aggression. Based on theories of aggression, we found that ostracized participants reported higher levels of automatic aggression than included participants (Studies 1 and 2). Furthermore, the association between ostracism and automatic aggression was mediated by anger and was especially prominent for people low in forgiveness (as compared to people high in forgiveness; Study 3). The implications of these findings are discussed.

The ability to independently verify and replicate observations made by other researchers is a hallmark of science. In this article, we provide an overview of recent discussions concerning replicability and best practices in mainstream psychology with an emphasis on the practical benefists to both researchers and the field as a whole. We first review challenges individual researchers face in producing research that is both publishable and reliable. We then suggest methods for producing more accurate research claims, such as transparently disclosing how results were obtained and analyzed, preregistering analysis plans, and publicly posting original data and materials. We also discuss ongoing changes at the institutional level to incentivize stronger research. These include officially recognizing open science practices at the journal level, disconnecting the publication decision from the results of a study, training students to conduct replications, and publishing replications. We conclude that these open science practices afford exciting low-cost opportunities to improve the quality of psychological science.

Cell phones are useful tools with both practical and social benefits. However, using them in the context of face-to-face conversations may be problematic. We consider this behavior a form of ostracism and test its effects on the satisfaction of basic psychological needs for belonging, self-esteem, control, and meaningful existence. In Study 1 participants who recalled a time in which a friend was checking a cell phone during a serious conversation reported feeling more ostracized (ignored and excluded), greater pain, and threat to basic needs than participants recalling a conversation without a cell phone interruption or a control event. Study 2 replicated and extended this effect: Cell phone-induced ostracism's effects were partially mediated by decreased feelings of relational evaluation, and threatened basic needs both in serious and casual conversation contexts. Findings from both studies also indicated that cell phone-induced ostracism hurts women more so than men.

Following ostracism, individuals are highly sensitive to social cues. Here we investigate whether and when minimal acknowledgment can improve need satisfaction following an ostracism experience. In four studies, participants were either ostracized during Cyberball (Studies 1 and 2) or through a novel apartment-application paradigm (Studies 3 and 4). To signal acknowledgment following ostracism, participants were either thrown a ball a few times at the end of the Cyberball game, or received a message that was either friendly, neutral, or hostile in the apartment-application paradigm. Both forms of acknowledgment increased need satisfaction, even when the acknowledgment was hostile (Study 4), emphasizing the beneficial effect of any kind of acknowledgment following ostracism. Reinclusion buffered threat immediately, whereas acknowledgment without reinclusion primarily aided recovery. Our results suggest that minimal acknowledgment such as a few ball throws or even an unfriendly message can reduce the sting of ostracism.