Collaborative Research: Social exclusion as a determinant of individuation and stereotyping

合作研究：社会排斥是个性化和陈规定型观念的决定因素

• 批准号: 1323418
• 负责人: Michael Bernstein
• 金额: $ 15.8万
• 依托单位: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-01 至 2017-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1323418&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Social; exclusion; determinant

Maintaining positive social relationships is important for individuals' well being. Despite this, people often experience social exclusion (colloquially referred to as "ostracism"). The experience of social exclusion makes people feel that they do not belong and leaves them wanting to re-connect. Rather than attempting to connect with just anyone, research shows that excluded people pick certain individuals. Specifically, they focus their attention on the identification of the best and most receptive re-affiliation partners. As a result, people who are excluded, compared to those who are not, are more likely to evaluate people based on their individual characteristics and personalities -- a process called "individuation" -- rather than characteristics based on beliefs about their group memberships -- a process called "stereotyping." Three lines of research will examine the relation between social exclusion and individuation. These studies will examine several different stereotyped groups, using multiple methods of social exclusion. Specific experiments will investigate (1) the role of the desire to reconnect in producing greater individuation after exclusion, (2) the circumstances under which exclusion is more and less likely to trigger individuation, and (3) the role that social exclusion plays in maintaining stereotypes. While extensive bodies of literature exist on social exclusion as well as the processing of group-based information such as stereotypes, the proposed research will be the first to synthesize these two areas of social psychology. Moreover, the proposed work will also further education and broaden participation of underrepresented groups in science. For instance, several undergraduate and graduate students will aid in conducting, analyzing, and disseminating the proposed research. Many of these students will come from groups traditionally underrepresented in science, such as women, racial minorities, and those from less affluent backgrounds.Finally, research shows that exclusion can trigger aggressive responses in both the laboratory and real-world settings. Some scholars suggest that social exclusion may be a contributing factor to tragedies such as school shootings. To help prevent excluded individuals from engaging in destructive actions, the proposed research could help scientists identify ways that excluded individuals can cope positively. Though many factors likely determine which victims of exclusion cope well and which do not, one factor may concern how they subsequently think about others following exclusion. Excluded individuals who evaluate others carefully (e.g., via individuation) may cope better with exclusion by finding new friends and therefore may be less likely to lash out. Encouraging the excluded to individuate others may provide one method of fostering adaptive coping. These efforts could prove especially useful in schools where incidents of bullying and exclusion are common. Therefore, the current work may help researchers understand how individuals handle exclusion and, ultimately, could provide strategies to deploy in schools and other relevant settings to defend against exclusion's potentially damaging consequences.

保持积极的社会关系对个人的幸福很重要。尽管如此，人们经常经历社会排斥(俗称“排斥”)。社会排斥的经历让人们觉得他们不属于这里，让他们想要重新建立联系。研究表明，被排除在外的人会选择特定的个人，而不是试图与任何人建立联系。具体地说，他们把注意力集中在确定最好和最容易接受的重新加入合作伙伴上。因此，与那些没有被排除在外的人相比，被排除在外的人更有可能根据他们的个人特征和个性来评估他们--这一过程被称为“个性化”--而不是基于对其群体成员身份的信念的特征--这一过程被称为“刻板印象”。三条研究路线将考察社会排斥和个人化之间的关系。这些研究将使用社会排斥的多种方法来考察几个不同的刻板印象群体。具体的实验将调查(1)重新建立联系的愿望在排斥后产生更大个性化方面的作用，(2)排斥越来越不可能引发个性化的情况，以及(3)社会排斥在维持刻板印象方面所起的作用。虽然存在大量关于社会排斥以及基于群体的信息处理的文献，如刻板印象，但拟议的研究将是第一次综合这两个社会心理学领域。此外，拟议的工作还将进一步教育和扩大未被充分代表的群体对科学的参与。例如，几名本科生和研究生将帮助进行、分析和传播拟议的研究。这些学生中的许多人将来自传统上在科学界代表性较低的群体，如女性、少数族裔和那些来自不太富裕的背景的人。最后，研究表明，排斥在实验室和现实世界环境中都会引发攻击性反应。一些学者认为，社会排斥可能是校园枪击案等悲剧的一个促成因素。为了帮助防止被排除在外的个人从事破坏性行动，拟议中的研究可以帮助科学家确定被排除在外的个人能够积极应对的方法。虽然许多因素可能决定了哪些被排斥的受害者能很好地应对，哪些不能，但其中一个因素可能涉及到他们随后在被排斥后如何看待其他人。被排除在外的人仔细地评估他人(例如，通过个性化)可能会通过寻找新朋友来更好地应对排斥，因此可能不太可能发脾气。鼓励被排除在外的人个人化可能提供了一种培养适应性应对的方法。在欺凌和排斥事件普遍发生的学校，这些努力可能被证明特别有用。因此，目前的工作可能有助于研究人员了解个人是如何处理排斥的，并最终可以提供策略，用于在学校和其他相关环境中部署，以抵御排斥的潜在破坏性后果。