Being excluded can have lasting effects

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - While physical bullying can cause pain, being ignored or left out can have a deeper, more painful impact on someone than scrapes or bruises can.

It can be painful to be ignored or excluded, and this almost invisible type of bullying can have long-lasting effects. Purdue Professor Kipling Williams is studying what it can do to the human brain.

"Ostracism happens with all social animals. When they are ostracized it literally means death. For people it's like a social death and it's still quite devastating," he said.

Williams researched 5,000 subjects as they played a simple computer ball game. Within the game the subject is ignored by other players they don't even know. But Williams found that in just a few minutes, the players reacted strongly to being ignored by perfect strangers.

"It actually activates the same part of the brain that is activated when we experience physical pain. So the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex detects pain and it is activated when you are not thrown a ball in this little game. So it actually is a form of pain," he said.

Ostracism can happen in many ways from being left out of a group to being given the "silent treatment" by family or friends. He said people who are prone to depression and social anxiety may be more likely to continue to feel pain over a longer period of time.

"One of the things we think it important is to realize the power of ostracism in these situations and how it can be just as painful to people as other more overt types of harassment," he said.

That's why Williams is now focusing on how these people may be drawn to more extreme groups and what effects ostracism has on those groups.