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Ostracism threatens certainty: a single-laboratory meta-analysis
1University of Mississippi.
The Journal of Social Psychology
|December 28, 2025
Summary
Ostracism, or social exclusion, threatens belonging, self-esteem, and control. New research shows it also significantly undermines the need for certainty, impacting individuals immediately and after a delay.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Social Psychology
Background:
- Ostracism is recognized to threaten core human needs: belonging, self-esteem, control, and meaning.
- These fundamental needs are crucial for psychological well-being and social functioning.
Purpose of the Study:
- To present theoretical and empirical evidence for a fifth need threatened by ostracism: the need for certainty.
- To meta-analytically summarize experimental findings on ostracism's impact on certainty.
Main Methods:
- Review of theoretical basis for the need for certainty.
- Meta-analysis of 18 experiments (N=5,241) manipulating ostracism and measuring uncertainty.
- Assessment of immediate and delayed effects of ostracism on certainty.
Main Results:
- Ostracism significantly reduces the sense of certainty immediately after the experience (d = -0.37).
- A lesser, yet significant, negative effect on certainty persists after a brief delay (d = -0.16).
Conclusions:
- The need for certainty is a fifth fundamental psychological need threatened by ostracism.
- Ostracism-induced uncertainty has immediate and lingering effects.
- Future research should explore behavioral impacts and the role of uncertainty in ostracism dynamics.
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