Eric D Wesselmann
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 111179 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Eric D Wesselmann |
| NOMBRES | Eric D |
| APELLIDO | Wesselmann |
| FIRMA | WESSELMANN E D |
| AFILIACIONES | Illinois State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0717-441X |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 40 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 192 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 40 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2009 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 7 |
Exploring the motives for watching horror movies
A festschrift honoring Dr. Kipling Williams
Dr. Kipling Williams was at the forefront of examining ostracism (being excluded and ignored). To acknowledge his essential contributions, we compiled a special issue consisting of several former students and mentees describing how their work expands on Williams's foundational scholarship. In the current article, we provided a brief overview of ostracism to contextualize the subsequent articles in this special issue. We summarized Williams's jour…
Social exclusion, social support, and trauma
Humans have an inherent need to forge stable and quality social connections. One key benefit of having social connections is obtaining social support for navigating traumatic or otherwise stressful events. Ostracism (i.e. being both ignored and excluded, Williams, 2009) and other forms of social exclusion rob individuals of the opportunity to receive social support and likely contribute to stress-related mental health concerns. My colleagues and …
You’re No Good – I’m kicking You Out!” Ostracizing Burdensome Group Members
Why do individuals ostracize (exclude and ignore) others despite ostracism's unpleasantness for both the person being ostracized (a target) and the person doing the ostracism (a source)? Our research addressed one reason why individuals ostracize others: removing burdensome others due to their being poor exchange partners. Specifically, we found participants ostracized a virtual ball-toss player who was burdensome due to taking an excessive amoun…
How social exclusion makes radicalism flourish
In recent years, researchers of various disciplines have developed many theories to understand the radicalization process. One key factor that may promote radicalization is social exclusion, the state of being kept apart from others. Indeed, experimental studies have provided initial evidence for a relation between exclusion and radicalism. The current review outlines and builds upon these research programs, arguing that social exclusion has been…
A Mixed Methods Investigation into Latino Fathers’ Roles in Their Children’s Educational Expectations
Latino fathers make meaningful contributions toward their children’s educational expectations. Cultural factors and structural barriers may shape unique parenting roles for Latino fathers and their influence on their children’s educational expectations. To explore the culturally nuanced roles of Latino fathers, we conducted a convergent mixed-methods study with 244 emerging adults to gain their perceptions of their fathers’ parenting roles and ho…
Impact of the seductive allure effect and trappings of science on perceptions of paranormal and pseudoscientific research
Despite concerns proponents of the paranormal misuse scientific concepts to justify their claims, few studies have assessed the influence of these misuses. Here we examined the role of the "seductive allure effect," which often shows neuroscience-related content to exert greater influence than content from other scientific fields, by assessing whether it would impact how people respond to brief summaries of paranormal research. We also examined w…
Enhancing the understanding of suspicion development across time
In two experimental studies in a virtual context, we explored the development of an individual’s state suspicion across time. Based on a multi-stage theory of state suspicion, we investigated several types of contextual cues that might influence suspicion (discrepancies from expectation; system characteristics of teammates; goal type). We also considered an individual difference moderator/filter on the effect of suspicion-inducing cues (i.e. part…
Discussing one’s fan interests with others can satisfy or threaten psychological needs
Many individuals consider themselves a fan of something (e.g. music, sports) and discuss these interests with others. However, these interactions may be risky: a positive interaction could make someone feel socially connected and valued by others, whereas a negative interaction may prompt feelings of exclusion. Thus, these interactions could impact one’s basic psychological needs (e.g. belonging, self-esteem) depending upon the specific conversat…
Can a negative religious causal attribution of mental illness affect the phenomenon of public stigma
This study assessed, through an exploratory approach, how religion-based negative causal attributions of mental illness may be associated to stigmatising attitudes and behaviours that contribute to public stigma in an Italian convenience sample. All participants (N = 311; average age = 33 years, 38.6% male) completed a set of three questionnaires: Religious Beliefs and Mental Illness Stigma Scale, the Attribution Questionnaire 27 and the Mental H…
Do cues of infectious disease shape people’s affective responses to social exclusion
Social exclusion triggers aversive reactions (e.g., increased negative affect), but being excluded may bring substantial benefits by reducing pathogen exposure associated with social interactions. Is exclusion less aversive when cues of infectious diseases are salient in the environment? We conducted two preregistered experiments with a 2 (belonging status: included vs. excluded) × 2 (disease salience: low vs. high) design, using scenarios (Study…
Seeking Solitude After Being Ostracized
Individuals may respond to ostracism by either behaving prosocially or antisocially. A recent paper provides evidence for a third response: solitude seeking, suggesting that ostracized individuals may ironically engage in self-perpetuating behaviors which exacerbate social isolation. To examine this counterintuitive response to ostracism, we conceptually replicated the original paper in three studies ( N = 1,118). Ostracism experiences were assoc…
“You phubbed me for that?” Reason given for phubbing and perceptions of interactional quality and exclusion
When someone focuses on their phone, rather than the person in front of them (“phubbing” or “technoference”), this can lead to feelings of exclusion and dissatisfaction. Few studies have examined this phenomenon experimentally using a confederate during face-to-face interactions, and to our knowledge the published research has yet to examine the role that attributional information may have on the effects of being phubbed. Thus, we conducted an ex…
Translation and Validation of an Italian Language Version of the Religious Beliefs and Mental Illness Stigma Scale (I-RBMIS)
The effects of sexual harassment, assault, and objectification on the self
Sexual objectification is an umbrella term for a diverse range of experiences that make someone feel as if they are merely a body that exists for the use and pleasure of others. This special issue presents nine empirical papers examining the connections between sexual objectification and self-relevant variables (e.g., self-concept; self-esteem). These papers provide innovative theoretical and methodological approaches to studying the antecedents …
Manipulating Environmental Commitment
Environmental commitment, the subjective experience of dependence on the natural environment, is marked by a long-term orientation and psychological attachment towards the natural environment. The current research replicates and extends previous research on temporarily increasing environmental commitment (Davis et al., 2009). We employed Davis et al.'s manipulation in two experimental studies (one laboratory, one online): we asked participants to…
Investigating microaggressions against transgender individuals as a form of social exclusion
The Effect of Thinking about Being Excluded by God on Well-Being
Prior research has provided initial evidence that thinking about being excluded by God lowers self-reported well-being in a Dutch sample of Christian students. The current research sought to replicate this finding in two studies. The first experiment recruited a USA sample of Christian students from a secular and religious school. The second experiment recruited a USA online sample of Christians contacted via Mechanical Turk. Results of these two…
Investigating Ostracism and Racial Microaggressions Toward Afro-Brazilians
We examined two forms of social exclusion toward Afro-Brazilians commonly found in the United States, ostracism and racial microaggressions. We utilized a mixed-method (quantitative-experimental and qualitative) approach to investigate ostracism and a qualitative focus group approach to study racial microaggressions. In Study 1 ( n = 29), we experimentally investigated ostracism through a recall paradigm in which participants wrote about being ei…
Hurt people hurt people
Cell phone-induced ostracism threatens fundamental needs
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 conversatio…
Psychological flexibility and ostracism
Investigating how ostracizing others affects one’s self-concept
Social relationships are connected with an individual’s self-concept, so events that influence one’s relationships subsequently influence one’s self-concept. Ostracism, being excluded and ignored, is an aversive experience involving both a target (the one being ostracized) and source (the one ostracizing). We will discuss previous limitations of source paradigms and how we addressed them when developing our paradigms. We will also highlight curre…
When Nobody 'Likes' You
This research explores the processes of perceived ostracism ensuing from a lack of feedback via paralinguistic digital affordances (PDAs), the one-click tools (e.g., Likes and +1s) which are one of the most used features of social media, provided to an individual's posted social media content. The positive and negative psychological outcomes of social media communication have been well-documented. However, as social media have become entrenched a…
Workplace Discrimination against Sexual Minorities
Sexual minorities (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals; LGBT) experience workplace discrimination that leads to decreased physical and emotional well‐being, and negative job outcomes. LGBT individuals may also experience microaggressions and ostracism in the workplace. Microaggressions are brief and subtle slights or insults that can be either conscious or unconscious, which have negative consequences similar to direct “old‐fashio…
Helicopter Parents and Landing Pad Kids
Popular media describe adverse effects of helicopter parents who provide intense support to grown children, but few studies have examined implications of such intense support. Grown children (N = 592, M age = 23.82 years, 53% female, 35% members of racial/ethnic minority groups) and their parents (N = 399, M age = 50.67 years, 52% female; 34% members of racial/ethnic minority groups) reported on the support they exchanged with one another. Intens…
I Feel Your Pain”
Cat-Calls and Culpability
Social life and social death
Humans are social animals and they depend upon social relationships to fortify their physical and psychological well-being. Various types of social experiences can threaten these relationships, making individuals feel excluded : separated from others physically or emotionally. Social exclusion experiences can be further broken down into two subcategories: rejection- and ostracism-based experiences. We provide a brief summary of the research on so…
Adding injury to insult
Previous research indicates that rejection by a group causes aggressive responses. However, in these previous studies, rejected participants were led to believe that they were liked and accepted before the rejection; likely, this rejection was highly unanticipated. Sociometer theory (Leary et al., 1995) proposes the existence of a psychological mechanism (a “sociometer”) that enables individuals to detect potential rejection via others' reactions…
Ostracizing Group Members Who Can (or Cannot) Control Being Burdensome
Ostracism-excluding and ignoring someone-occurs cross-culturally in humans. Previous research suggests that groups often use ostracism to punish burdensome members in order to 1) motivate the members to change undesirable behavior and 2) ultimately protect the group from these members. We present data from two studies that manipulate the presence of a burdensome member during an online group interaction and attributional information about the mem…
Prayer, self-affirmation, and distraction improve recovery from short-term ostracism
Social cues establish expectations of rejection and affect the response to being rejected
Violating one’s expectations of inclusion may influence the pain of rejection. This is supported by neurological evidence on expectation violation processing (Somerville, Heatherton, & Kelley, 2006). We asked: Can an expectation of a specific social outcome affect how it feels to be rejected or included? We tested the premise that expectations for the outcome of an interaction are derived from social information. Participants were either liked or…
Responses to exclusion are moderated by its perceived fairness
Experimental exclusion manipulations may induce exclusion in a way that participants perceive as unfair. Groups often use exclusion punitively to correct inappropriate behavior, however, which may lead to perceptions that it is potentially justified or fair. The current studies examined if individuals' perceptions of fairness with respect to an exclusion experience moderated their reactions. Participants wrote about or imagined a time in which th…
Revisiting Schachter's Research on Rejection, Deviance, and Communication (1951)
We conducted a replication of the original Schachter (1951) deviation-rejection study. Schachter's groundbreaking demonstration of the deviation-rejection link has captivated social psychologists for decades. The findings and paradigm were so compelling that the deviation-rejection link is often taken for granted and sometimes may be misrepresented ( Berkowitz, 1971 ; Wahrman & Pugh, 1972 ). Because there have only been two direct replications, o…
Investigating microaggressions against transgender individuals as a form of social exclusion
A festschrift honoring Dr. Kipling Williams
Dr. Kipling Williams was at the forefront of examining ostracism (being excluded and ignored). To acknowledge his essential contributions, we compiled a special issue consisting of several former students and mentees describing how their work expands on Williams's foundational scholarship. In the current article, we provided a brief overview of ostracism to contextualize the subsequent articles in this special issue. We summarized Williams's jour…
Social exclusion, social support, and trauma
Humans have an inherent need to forge stable and quality social connections. One key benefit of having social connections is obtaining social support for navigating traumatic or otherwise stressful events. Ostracism (i.e. being both ignored and excluded, Williams, 2009) and other forms of social exclusion rob individuals of the opportunity to receive social support and likely contribute to stress-related mental health concerns. My colleagues and …
You’re No Good – I’m kicking You Out!” Ostracizing Burdensome Group Members
Why do individuals ostracize (exclude and ignore) others despite ostracism's unpleasantness for both the person being ostracized (a target) and the person doing the ostracism (a source)? Our research addressed one reason why individuals ostracize others: removing burdensome others due to their being poor exchange partners. Specifically, we found participants ostracized a virtual ball-toss player who was burdensome due to taking an excessive amoun…
When Nobody 'Likes' You
This research explores the processes of perceived ostracism ensuing from a lack of feedback via paralinguistic digital affordances (PDAs), the one-click tools (e.g., Likes and +1s) which are one of the most used features of social media, provided to an individual's posted social media content. The positive and negative psychological outcomes of social media communication have been well-documented. However, as social media have become entrenched a…
Investigating Ostracism and Racial Microaggressions Toward Afro-Brazilians
We examined two forms of social exclusion toward Afro-Brazilians commonly found in the United States, ostracism and racial microaggressions. We utilized a mixed-method (quantitative-experimental and qualitative) approach to investigate ostracism and a qualitative focus group approach to study racial microaggressions. In Study 1 ( n = 29), we experimentally investigated ostracism through a recall paradigm in which participants wrote about being ei…
I Feel Your Pain”
Cat-Calls and Culpability
Adding injury to insult
Previous research indicates that rejection by a group causes aggressive responses. However, in these previous studies, rejected participants were led to believe that they were liked and accepted before the rejection; likely, this rejection was highly unanticipated. Sociometer theory (Leary et al., 1995) proposes the existence of a psychological mechanism (a “sociometer”) that enables individuals to detect potential rejection via others' reactions…
Ostracism in everyday life.
Helicopter Parents and Landing Pad Kids
Popular media describe adverse effects of helicopter parents who provide intense support to grown children, but few studies have examined implications of such intense support. Grown children (N = 592, M age = 23.82 years, 53% female, 35% members of racial/ethnic minority groups) and their parents (N = 399, M age = 50.67 years, 52% female; 34% members of racial/ethnic minority groups) reported on the support they exchanged with one another. Intens…
When Do We Ostracize
Ostracism is a common, yet painful social experience. Given the harmful consequences of ostracism, why would groups ostracize their members? Previous research suggests that ostracism is a form of social control used to influence those group members perceived as burdensome. The authors propose that individuals will ostracize a group member only when it is justified (i.e., the member seems burdensome) but will compensate a member who is ostracized …
With partners like you, who needs strangers? Ostracism involving a romantic partner
Being ostracized by others threatens the satisfaction of fundamental needs, although less so when individuals first are reminded of a close relationship. What remains unknown is the effect of being ostracized directly by a relationship partner, which may vary depending on attachment security. We examined how a partner's involvement in ostracism affects need satisfaction and relationship evaluations, and explored attachment security. One hundred a…
Ostracizing Group Members Who Can (or Cannot) Control Being Burdensome
Ostracism-excluding and ignoring someone-occurs cross-culturally in humans. Previous research suggests that groups often use ostracism to punish burdensome members in order to 1) motivate the members to change undesirable behavior and 2) ultimately protect the group from these members. We present data from two studies that manipulate the presence of a burdensome member during an online group interaction and attributional information about the mem…
Revisiting Schachter's Research on Rejection, Deviance, and Communication (1951)
We conducted a replication of the original Schachter (1951) deviation-rejection study. Schachter's groundbreaking demonstration of the deviation-rejection link has captivated social psychologists for decades. The findings and paradigm were so compelling that the deviation-rejection link is often taken for granted and sometimes may be misrepresented ( Berkowitz, 1971 ; Wahrman & Pugh, 1972 ). Because there have only been two direct replications, o…
Social cues establish expectations of rejection and affect the response to being rejected
Violating one’s expectations of inclusion may influence the pain of rejection. This is supported by neurological evidence on expectation violation processing (Somerville, Heatherton, & Kelley, 2006). We asked: Can an expectation of a specific social outcome affect how it feels to be rejected or included? We tested the premise that expectations for the outcome of an interaction are derived from social information. Participants were either liked or…
Evidence for Another Response to Ostracism
People may choose to move toward, move against, or move away in reaction to threatening social situations. Ostracism induces both prosocial behaviors (moving toward) and antisocial behaviors (moving against). One reason that moving away may be missing from these observed responses is the absence of including such a response in experiments. In four studies, we examined whether ostracized individuals would avail themselves of a moving away response…
Religious commitment
In 4 studies using cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental methods, we applied interdependence theory-based concepts to understand individuals’ religious commitment, focusing on 4 distinct targets of commitment: God, denomination, community, and spiritual leader. We specifically examined which individuals were likely to persist in their religious organization membership and belief system, and which individuals were likely to convert. Resu…
Responses to exclusion are moderated by its perceived fairness
Experimental exclusion manipulations may induce exclusion in a way that participants perceive as unfair. Groups often use exclusion punitively to correct inappropriate behavior, however, which may lead to perceptions that it is potentially justified or fair. The current studies examined if individuals' perceptions of fairness with respect to an exclusion experience moderated their reactions. Participants wrote about or imagined a time in which th…
Prayer, self-affirmation, and distraction improve recovery from short-term ostracism
Workplace Discrimination against Sexual Minorities
Sexual minorities (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals; LGBT) experience workplace discrimination that leads to decreased physical and emotional well‐being, and negative job outcomes. LGBT individuals may also experience microaggressions and ostracism in the workplace. Microaggressions are brief and subtle slights or insults that can be either conscious or unconscious, which have negative consequences similar to direct “old‐fashio…
Social life and social death
Humans are social animals and they depend upon social relationships to fortify their physical and psychological well-being. Various types of social experiences can threaten these relationships, making individuals feel excluded : separated from others physically or emotionally. Social exclusion experiences can be further broken down into two subcategories: rejection- and ostracism-based experiences. We provide a brief summary of the research on so…
Hurt people hurt people
Cell phone-induced ostracism threatens fundamental needs
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 conversatio…
Psychological flexibility and ostracism
Investigating how ostracizing others affects one’s self-concept
Social relationships are connected with an individual’s self-concept, so events that influence one’s relationships subsequently influence one’s self-concept. Ostracism, being excluded and ignored, is an aversive experience involving both a target (the one being ostracized) and source (the one ostracizing). We will discuss previous limitations of source paradigms and how we addressed them when developing our paradigms. We will also highlight curre…
When Nobody 'Likes' You
This research explores the processes of perceived ostracism ensuing from a lack of feedback via paralinguistic digital affordances (PDAs), the one-click tools (e.g., Likes and +1s) which are one of the most used features of social media, provided to an individual's posted social media content. The positive and negative psychological outcomes of social media communication have been well-documented. However, as social media have become entrenched a…
Investigating Ostracism and Racial Microaggressions Toward Afro-Brazilians
We examined two forms of social exclusion toward Afro-Brazilians commonly found in the United States, ostracism and racial microaggressions. We utilized a mixed-method (quantitative-experimental and qualitative) approach to investigate ostracism and a qualitative focus group approach to study racial microaggressions. In Study 1 ( n = 29), we experimentally investigated ostracism through a recall paradigm in which participants wrote about being ei…
The Effect of Thinking about Being Excluded by God on Well-Being
Prior research has provided initial evidence that thinking about being excluded by God lowers self-reported well-being in a Dutch sample of Christian students. The current research sought to replicate this finding in two studies. The first experiment recruited a USA sample of Christian students from a secular and religious school. The second experiment recruited a USA online sample of Christians contacted via Mechanical Turk. Results of these two…
Seeking Solitude After Being Ostracized
Individuals may respond to ostracism by either behaving prosocially or antisocially. A recent paper provides evidence for a third response: solitude seeking, suggesting that ostracized individuals may ironically engage in self-perpetuating behaviors which exacerbate social isolation. To examine this counterintuitive response to ostracism, we conceptually replicated the original paper in three studies ( N = 1,118). Ostracism experiences were assoc…
“You phubbed me for that?” Reason given for phubbing and perceptions of interactional quality and exclusion
When someone focuses on their phone, rather than the person in front of them (“phubbing” or “technoference”), this can lead to feelings of exclusion and dissatisfaction. Few studies have examined this phenomenon experimentally using a confederate during face-to-face interactions, and to our knowledge the published research has yet to examine the role that attributional information may have on the effects of being phubbed. Thus, we conducted an ex…
Psychology (36 obras) · Social Psychology (32 obras) · Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion (29 obras) · Ostracism (19 obras) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (16 obras) · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health (15 obras) · Social Psychology (15 obras) · Developmental psychology (9 obras) · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology (8 obras) · Social exclusion (7 obras)