Belonging was necessary for the establishment of mental health, reproductive success, and security in human (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). The advantages in establishing and maintaining social connections were numerous, for example obtained social support from groups, accessed critical resources and potential mates, and protected from environmental dangers (Buss, 1990). In fact, Baumeister and Leary (1995) suggested that belonging to social groups was so vital to human survival that should be count as one of the basic needs, together with shelter and nourishment. In view of the importance of belonging, numerous research examined the response of people when they did not belong, through the act …show more content…
Before the game, some participants were presented with digitized photographs of two White faces and some with two Black faces. In actuality, the participants were playing with the computer-controlled avatars. In the game, the participants were randomly assigned to be excluded or included by the avatars. The results suggested that exclusion by racial ingroup and racial outgroup threatened the four basic needs. Moreover, being excluded by racial ingroup appeared to hurt more than being excluded by racial outgroup. The findings suggested that the personal experience might be magnified when the accepters or rejecters were the essentialized ingroup members.
However, previous research were lack of investigation on the behavior outcomes after being ostracized by essentialized ingroups and outgroups. Therefore, we did not know if being excluded by racial ingroups could also magnify aggressive behavioral responses. The aim of the current study was to investigate the differential aggressive behavioral outcomes of racial ingroups versus racial outgroups ostracism. The results of the present study could establish a link between ostracism by essentialized ingroups or ourgroups and intensity of aggressive behavioral …show more content…
In the modified version, the electric shocks were being replaced by noise blasts as the punishment. Noise blasts did not cause physical pain to participants, which might be less stressful for them to administer or receive, and led to fewer ethical concerns compared to electric shocks. Participants played the game against a fictional opponent, in which they required to press a button as quick as possible on each trial. The loser would hear a blast of white noise as punishment through the headphone attached to the computer. Participants set in advance the intensity (level ranged from 0 to 10) and the duration (controlled by held down the mouse button) of noise blasts that would hear by their opponent in each trial. The computer recorded the intensity and duration of noise decided by the participants for each of 10 trials. Previous research suggested the first trial was most appropriate to measure unprovoked aggressiveness because participants had not yet received punishment from their opponent (Bushman & Baumeister, 1998). Therefore, the intensity and duration of the noise blasts from the first trial were used to measure