Ostracism modulates children's recognition of emotional facial expressions

Hostile cognitions and emotions following social exclusion in Japanese adults and young children

Social exclusion heightens negative emotions and hostile cognition toward others; however, its effects on non-Western adults and children remain unclear. These studies examined the effects on Japanese adults (N = 68; 34 female; Mage = 21.87 years) and 4- to 6-year-old children (N = 147; 78 female). The results showed that although excluded adults reported higher negative emotions and hostile evaluations of excluders, hostile cognitions toward others did not differ significantly between the inclusion and exclusion conditions. Excluded older children reported higher hostile evaluations toward excluders; however, emotions and hostile cognitions toward others did not differ significantly between the conditions. Although developmental changes in emotions and hostile evaluations were suggested, this research partially contradicts previous Western findings, highlighting the need for cross-cultural research.

Ostracism affects children's behavioral reactivity and gaze cueing of attention

Being ostracized is a negative experience that threatens important psychological needs, inducing considerable cognitive and behavioral changes and influencing the processing of social signals such as gaze-cueing. Yet, little is known about how self-experienced ostracism affects children's behavior and attentional processes. The present study aims to explore whether the social experience of being included or ostracized can modulate gaze-cueing of attention and behavioral reactivity in 6- (N = 40) and 10-year-old children (N = 40) and adults (N = 50). Participants were video-recorded while playing an online ball-tossing game (i.e., Cyberball), where they could be either included or ostracized. They then participated in a gaze cueing task, where the cue was provided by the eye-gaze of a central human face, and the target could appear in a congruent or incongruent position. Results revealed that ostracism affected both adults' and children's ability to follow another's gaze, as they were slower to respond to incongruent targets when ostracized compared to when included. Additionally, ostracism impaired 10-year-old children's accuracy in responding to the target. Behavioral reactivity results demonstrated that both children and adults were more disappointed during the ostracism vs. inclusion condition. Overall, current findings demonstrate that self-experienced ostracism modulates children's and adults' behavioral reactivity and processing of social signals such as gaze cueing.

The effects of ostracism on preschoolers' over-imitation behaviors

Over-imitation represents an early developing behavior implicated in the emergence of learning, affective, and social competences. Adult over-imitation is heavily affected by contextual variables such as social ostracism, the experience of being ignored by others in a social context, an experience that threatens several psychological needs, inducing the urge to reaffiliate with a social group to restore the original state of well-being. Yet, the impact of social ostracism on over-imitation in children remains unclear. This study explored how a face-to-face triadic inclusive/ostracizing ball-tossing game affects over-imitation in predominantly White 3-year-old children (n = 43, 53.4% boys) and 5-year-old children (n = 43, 41.8% boys). Results showed that preschoolers are highly affected by social ostracism experiences, with both age groups displaying decreased positive emotionality and heightened negative emotionality when ostracized. Despite this continuity in the affective and behavioral reactions toward social exclusion, imitation fidelity is differently affected by first-person ostracism; the 3-year-olds imitated more when ostracized, whereas the 5-year-olds did so when included, signaling a developmental difference between the strategy repertoire at different ages. Overall, the current findings shed light on the social influences driving preschoolers' over-imitation behaviors, emphasizing the importance of investigating social mechanisms underlying imitation and young children's social cognition development.

You can't play with us: First-person ostracism affects infants' behavioral reactivity

Ostracism negatively affects fundamental psychological needs, induces physiological and behavioral changes, and modulates the processing of social information in adults. Yet little is known about children and preverbal infants' responses to first-person experiences of ostracism. The current study aimed to explore the efficacy of a triadic ball-tossing game in manipulating social inclusion and ostracism with 13-month-old infants (N = 84; 44% males; mostly White; tested from 2019 to 2022) by developing an observational coding system. Infants' behaviors were recorded while participating in a ball-tossing game where they were either included or ostracized from the game. Ostracized, but not included, infants showed an increase in negative emotionality and involvement behaviors, thus suggesting that behavioral responses to being ostracized emerge early in life.