Ostracism and aggression: the moderating influence of psychopathic traits

James Hanson Wirth, Purdue University

Abstract

Ostracism--being ignored and excluded—threatens a sense of control and increases anger, which can trigger aggression. This thesis investigated psychopathy as a moderator of the ostracism → aggression link. Psychopathy is characterized by poor impulse control and muted emotional response. Ostracized participants experience an initial pain response (reflexive stage), but over time they appraise the situation and fortify basic needs (reflective stage). I hypothesize that the poor impulse control of ostracized individuals with psychopathic traits may exacerbate impulsive aggression in the reflexive stage. However, muted emotional responses to threatening situations may lead individuals with psychopathic traits to be less deliberately aggressive in ostracism's reflective stage. In three studies, psychopathic traits were measured before participants were ostracized or included in a virtual ball-toss game, Cyberball. In Study 1, participants reported their basic need satisfaction and mood immediately after Cyberball (reflexive stage) and then after a minute delay (reflective stage). The reflective stage included measures of aggressive behavior temptations. Contrary to my expectations, psychopathic traits did not moderate significantly the reflexive ostracism effect, but they did moderate effects in the reflective stage; ostracism's impact and the temptation to aggress were reduced for those high in psychopathic traits. In Study 2, I altered the ostracism manipulation to further test if psychopathy could moderate the immediate reaction. I replaced the full ostracism condition with a partial ostracism condition—an ostracism manipulation that increases sensitivity to moderation because of its ambiguity. Aggression was measured by the duration of noise blasts participants set for an opponent during a competitive reaction time task. Partially ostracized participants felt less basic need satisfaction than included participants, but again contrary to my hypothesis, there was no main effect of ostracism or psychopathy, nor were there any significant interactions. Study 3, examined the reflexive and reflective stage aggression hypotheses within the same study by making recovery stage a between-subjects factor. Aggression was measured using aggressive behavior temptations and disliked food (e.g., prunes) allocation. Ostracism lead to lowered basic need satisfaction, worsened affect, and increased aggression in both stages, but psychopathy did not moderate ostracism’s effects. Psychopathy did not consistently moderate the aggression response following ostracism, but in other social exclusion contexts it may be a significant moderator.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Williams, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Social psychology|Clinical psychology

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