SynthesisPloS one2015
The ordinal effects of ostracism: a meta-analysis of 120 Cyberball studies.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 145 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
145 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Testing effects of social rejection on aggressive and prosocial behavior: A meta-analysis.Aggressive behavior · 2022Pooled it
- The vicious circle of social exclusion and psychopathology: a systematic review of experimental ostracism research in psychiatric disorders.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2020Pooled it
- Meditation training and non-native language training both reduce older adults loneliness in the age-well randomized controlled trial.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Bystander Acknowledgment Mitigates the Psychological and Physiological Pain of Racial Discrimination for Black Young Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial.The journal of pain · 2024Trial
- Trial
- Mixing Misery and Gin: The Effect of Alcohol Administration on Ostracism Response.Personality & social psychology bulletin · 2022Trial
- Processing of increased frequency of social interaction in social anxiety disorder and borderline personality disorder.Scientific reports · 2021Trial
- Effects of Social Exclusion on Cardiovascular and Affective Reactivity to a Socially Evaluative Stressor.International journal of behavioral medicine · 2018Trial
- Non-suicidal self-injury and digital ostracism: a novel smartphone-based paradigm capturing real-time responses to social media exclusion.Borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation · 2026Article
- Effects of experimental ostracism on cortisol, autonomic regulation, and affective states in adolescents with nonsuicidal self-injury.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2026Article
- Culture and anthropomorphism towards robots in middle school students: evidence from human-robot interaction.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Effects of social exclusion on following the gaze of others.British journal of psychology (London, England : 1953) · 2026Article
- Endocannabinoid response to social stress in chronic non-medical prescription opioid users.Psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Effects of Cyberball on cognitive vulnerability for suicide in youth with a history of multiple suicide attempts.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Social chronic pain: the affective response to social exclusion.The journal of headache and pain · 2025Article
- Examining the Effects of Ostracism and Overinclusion in the Eating Disorder Binge Spectrum: Evidence From a Controlled Cyberball Task.European eating disorders review : the journal of the Eating Disorders Association · 2025Article
- Physiological and cognitive reactivity to social exclusion among emerging adults with versus without a suicide attempt history.Psychiatry research communications · 2025Article
- Infants' neural processing of emotional faces after ostracism.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Investigating social exclusion, affect and emotion regulation in young people using the ostracism online paradigm.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Electrophysiological and Behavioral Responses to Overinclusion Following Preexposure to Social Threat.Psychophysiology · 2025Article
85 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
We examined 120 Cyberball studies (N = 11,869) to determine the effect size of ostracism and conditions under which the effect may be reversed, eliminated, or small. Our analyses showed that (1) the average ostracism effect is large (d > |1.4|) and (2) generalizes across structural aspects (number of players, ostracism duration, number of tosses, type of needs scale), sampling aspects (gender, age, country), and types of dependent measure (interpersonal, intrapersonal, fundamental needs). Further, we test Williams's (2009) proposition that the immediate impact of ostracism is resistant to moderation, but that moderation is more likely to be observed in delayed measures. Our findings suggest that (3) both first and last measures are susceptible to moderation and (4) time passed since being ostracized does not predict effect sizes of the last measure. Thus, support for this proposition is tenuous and we suggest modifications to the temporal need-threat model of ostracism.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.