ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the ostracism experience from the perspective of both sources and targets. Ostracizing in a group may help to increase cohesiveness, but ostracizing the target one-on-one often results in a loss of belongingness, particularly if the target is a loved one, such as a child or partner. Williams outlined several 'motives' for ostracizing others, which include: punitive, defensive, and oblivious ostracism. Although Williams's model of ostracism asserts that targets experience a uniform threat to primary needs post-ostracism, the model makes no predictions regarding the primary needs of sources. Ciarocco et al. found that after engaging in an instance of one-on-one ostracism, sources showed impaired executive functioning on a number of tasks. Williams and Nida argue that antisocial and aggressive post-ostracism responses may also stem from the target's depleted sense of meaningful existence, which leaves the target feeling invisible and unable to generate any kind of response from others. Antisocial responding post-ostracism may also be influenced by self-regulatory capacity.
