Focuses on the ubiquitous and powerful effects of ostracism, social exclusion, rejection, and bullying. This title shows how social psychology regarded ostracism, rejection and social exclusion as merely outcomes to be avoided.

The Social Outcast: Introduction, Kipling D. Williams, Joseph P. Forgas, William von Hippel & Lisa Zadro. Part I. Theoretical Foundations. Ostracism: The Indiscriminate Early Detection System, Kipling D. Williams & Lisa Zadro. Varieties of Interpersonal Rejection. Mark R. Leary. The Inner Dimension of Social Exclusion: Intelligent Thought and Self-Regulation Among Rejected Persons, Roy F. Baumeister and C. Nathan DeWall. Part II. Deep Roots of Exclusion: Neuropsychological substrates of Isolation and Exclusion. Adding Insult to Injury: Social Pain Theory and Response to Social Exclusion, Geoff MacDonald, Rachell Kingsbury, and Stephanie Shaw. People Thinking about People: The Vicious Cycle of Being a Social Outcast in One's Own Mind, John T. Cacioppo and Louise C. Hawkley. Why it Hurts to Be Left Out: The Neurocognitive Overlap between Physical and Social Pain, Naomi I. Eisenberger & Matthew D. Lieberman. Part III: Individual and Population Differences and the Impact of Social Exclusion and Bullying. Rejection Sensitivity as a Predictor of Affective and Behavioral Responses to Interpersonal Stress: A Defensive Motivational System, Rainer Romero-Canyas and Geraldine Downey. The Rejected and the Bullied: Lessons about Social Misfits from Developmental Psychology, Jaana Juvonen and Elisheva F. Gross. Role of Social Expectancies in Cognitive and Behavioral Responses to Social Rejection, Kristin L. Sommer and Yonata Rubin. Coping with Rejection: Core Social Motives, across Cultures, Susan T. Fiske and Mariko Yamamoto. Part IV: Influences of Rejection on Emotion, Perception, and Cognition. When Does Social Rejection Lead to Aggression? Jean M. Twenge. The Social Monitoring System: Enhanced Sensitivity to Social Cues and Information as an Adaptive Response to Social Exclusion and Belonging Need, Cynthia L. Pickett & Wendi L. Gardner. Social Snacking and Shielding: Using Social Symbols, Selves, and Surrogates in the Service of Belonging Needs, Wendi L. Gardner, Cynthia L. Pickett, and Megan Knowles. All Animals are Equal but some Animals are more Equal than Others: Social Identity and Marginal Membership, Michael A. Hogg. Bye Bye, Black Sheep: The Causes and Consequences of Rejection in Family Relationships, Julie Fitness. Part V: Effects of Social Exclusion on Pro- and Anti-Social Behavior. Exclusion and Nonconscious Behavioral Mimicry, Jessica L. Lakin and Tanya L. Chartrand. The Effect of Rejection on Anti-Social Behaviors: Social Exclusion Produces Aggressive Behaviors, Kathleen R. Catanese and Dianne M. Tice. Rejection and Entitativity: A Synergistic Model of Mass Violence, Lowell Gaertner and Jonathan Iuzzini. Avoiding the Social Death Penalty: Ostracism and Cooperation in Social Dilemmas, Jaap W. Ouwerkerk, Norbert L. Kerr, Marcello Gallucci, and Paul A. M. Van Lange.

"This book is for all of us. It's for everyone who has ever been jilted, shunned, stood up for dinner, blackballed, left at the altar, or not told about the secret handshake. These chapters offer everything from clever insights to novel experiments to thorough reviews, touching in turn on many facets of the experience of rejection that we all know far too well—but have never before seen analyzed with this kind of scientific clarity." —Daniel M. Wegner, Harvard University"Why do people ignore, exclude, or reject others? How does such ostracism impact people's emotions, thoughts, and actions (in ways both toxic and adaptive)? In this state-of-the-art volume, internationally prominent social psychologists provide definitive answers. A timely and fascinating book for anyone seeking deeper insight into 'the social animal.'" —David G. Myers, Hope College"Many facets of [...] renewed scholarly interest are illuminated in this very comprehensive and sophisticated collection of papers from highly regarded scholars in several subfields. For the foreseeable future, this book will be definitive. It is a sourcebook that codifies the leading edge of research on social exclusion across many levels of analysis.The editors intended the [...] book to be a collaborative effort representing cross-fertilisation of many perspectives on exclusion rather than a more simplistic anthology of works from diverse thinkers. They have definitely succeeded, and as a result this book should be useful to researchers and advanced students in any behavioural science domain concerned with the dynamics of social belonging." —Brian H. Stagner, in PsyCritiques, June 14 2006