Reactions to Discrimination, Stigmatization, Ostracism, and Other Forms of Interpersonal Rejection

By L. Richman, Mark R. Leary. Psychology Review, 2009

917 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This article describes a new model that provides a framework for understanding people’s reactions to threats to social acceptance and belonging as they occur in the context of diverse phenomena such as rejection, discrimination, ostracism, betrayal, and stigmatization. People’s immediate reactions are quite similar across different forms of rejection in terms of negative affect and lowered self-esteem. However, following these immediate responses, people’s reactions are influenced by construals of the rejection experience that predict 3 distinct motives for prosocial, antisocial, and socially avoidant behavioral responses. The authors describe the relational, contextual, and dispositional factors that affect which motives determine people’s reactions to a rejection experience and the ways in which these 3 motives may work at cross-purposes. The multimotive model accounts for the myriad ways in which responses to rejection unfold over time and offers a basis for the next generation of research on interpersonal rejection.

Subfields: Health, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1cb755b56e9ea808f707a01ddd5a4f7d53dddf39

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Citations in the corpus

Invisible at Work (2013, background): “A number of prior reviews have focused on specific aspects of related literatures. for example, prior theoretical articles have discussed the functionality of social exclusion (Kurzban & Leary, 2001) and responses to threats to belonging (Richman & Leary, 2009).”
The Motivational Effects of Diminished Self-Esteem for Employees Who Experience Abusive Supervision (2017, background): “Because abusive supervision suggests the supervisor does not value the relationship with or accept the targeted employee (Baumeister, Smart, & Boden, 1996; Leary; Smart Richman & Leary, 2009), victims of abusive supervision experience diminished selfesteem (Burton & Hoobler, 2006).”
Social life and social death: Inclusion, ostracism, and rejection in groups (2017, background): “…of rejection and ostracism (Williams, 2007, 2009), rather than other conceptually related phenomena such as discrimination and stigmatization (Smart Richman & Leary, 2009), which have a long and rich history in social psychological research (Hewstone et al., 2002; Major & O’Brien, 2005; see also…”
The psychological sting of stigma: The costs of attributing ostracism to racism (2010, background): “Interestingly, theory and research on discrimination and ostracism have evolved relatively independently (Smart Richman & Leary, 2009).”
Individual‐ and group‐level effects of social identification on workplace bullying (2013, background): “For instance, it is equally plausible to regard exposure to bullying as a cause of lower selfesteem (Smart Richman & Leary, 2009).”
Envy As Pain: Rethinking the Nature of Envy and Its Implications for Employees and Organizations (2012, background): “For these individuals, feelings of envy may signal to them that others have excluded them, and this felt exclusion, in turn, may engender prosocial behavior (Richman & Leary, 2009).”
Subtle Discrimination in the Workplace: A Vicious Cycle (2017, background): “…Aquino, & Skarlicki, 2016; Turillo, Folger, Lavelle, Umphress, & Gee, 2002), which can occur through a variety of ways, including retaliation, ostracism, neglect, and negative affect toward perpetrators (Reich & Hershcovis, 2015; Schmader et al., 2012; Smart & Leary, 2009; Turillo et al., 2002).”
Inclusive Leadership: How Leaders Sustain or Discourage Work Group Inclusion (2021, background): “…Leyens, Paladino, Rodriguez-Torres, Rodriguez-Perez, & Dovidio, 2004), when a leader allows an employee to experience discrimination or stigmatization (Kurzban & Leary, 2001; Smart Richman & Leary, 2009), or when the leader laughs at an employee in a disparaging way (Klages & Wirth, 2014).”
Evidence for Another Response to Ostracism (2016, background): “However, researchers have theorized that, to avoid additional social pain, ostracized individuals might withdraw from social interactions and seek solitude as a possible means of self-protection (Richman & Leary, 2009; Wesselmann, Williams, Ren, & Hales, 2014).”
Data Privacy: Effects on Customer and Firm Performance (2017, neutral): “…gossip, people typically react negatively (Baumeister, Zhang, and Vohs 2004), with a range of negative emotional and cognitive responses (Leary and Leder 2009), including heightened feelings of betrayal and violation (Richman and Leary 2009) and deteriorating levels of trust (Turner et al. 2003).”
Serving the Self From the Seat of Power (2014, background): “Moreover, individuals in positions of power and authority may be especially likely to believe that they are entitled to the respect of others and undeserving of low social status—circumstances that are particularly likely to lead to damaging behaviors (Richman & Leary, 2009).”