Cyberbomb

Abstract

Recent research has shown that ostracism is distressful regardless of mitigating circumstances, providing evidence that humans are hard-wired to be hypervigilant to ostracism cues. Arguing that it is also highly adaptive to avoid being in a situation that signals a threat to survival we reasoned that the immediate distress to ostracism would be mitigated in a game of bomb-toss (Cyberbomb) compared to a game of ball-toss (Cyberball). Results showed that such a symbolic threat to survival is able to reduce the immediate distress caused by ostracism (Study 1 and Study 2), and––when the negative consequences of not surviving are highlighted––still powerful enough to induce aggression to fellow game players (Study 2). Taken together the studies speak to the often assumed but relatively untested relation between exclusion and survival that has been proposed in theories on belonging, exclusion and ostracism.