The endearing pain: Group value enhances positivity towards ostracisers
Victims of social exclusion are highly motivated to regain feelings of social connectedness.Some theories suggest that victims of exclusion should prefer inclusive or novel others and derogate the perpetrators of exclusion. Yet, no studies have explored the mechanisms that alter person preferences following exclusion. In two experiments we found that excluded people selectively evaluate ostracisers based on the ostracisers’ group membership. Excluded people who valued an ingroup membership evaluated ostracisers from that group more positively than includers from the same group. Ostracisers from an ingroup were also more positively evaluated than ostracisers from another group. These studies show that victims of exclusion do not universally devalue excluders. In fact, the findings indicate that exclusion endears victims to ingroup malefactors.