Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-2008

Publication Source

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

Abstract

Two experiments examined the hypothesis that social rejection and perceived groupness function together to produce multiple-victim incidents of aggression. When a rejecter’s group membership is salient during an act of rejection, the rejectee ostensibly associates the rejecter’s group with rejection and retaliates against the group. Both experiments manipulated whether an aggregate of three persons appeared as separate individuals or members of an entity-like group and whether one of those persons rejected the participant. Consistent with the hypothesis, participants who experienced both rejection and perceived groupness behaved more aggressively against the aggregate (Experiment 1) and evidenced less favorable affective associations toward the aggregate (Experiment 2) than did participants who did not experience both rejection and perceived groupness.

Inclusive pages

958-970

ISBN/ISSN

0022-1031

Document Version

Postprint

Comments

The document available for download is the authors' accepted manuscript, provided in compliance with the publisher's policy on self-archiving. To view the version of record, use the DOI provided. Permission documentation is on file.

Publisher

Elsevier

Volume

44

Issue

4

Peer Reviewed

yes

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