Abstract
In this research, we aimed to investigate the role of trait self-compassion in moderating ostracism’s effect on perceived meaningful existence and perceptual judgments of the environment. Specifically, we conducted two studies to test whether ostracism thwarts meaningful existence, thereby increasing darkness judgment (i.e., judge one’s surrounding lighting as darker). Moreover, we examined whether trait self-compassion moderates the proposed mediation effect such that the effect of ostracism is attenuated among participants with high trait self-compassion. The results showed that participants in the ostracism condition reported less meaningful existence and more darkness judgment than participants in the control conditions did (Studies 1 and 2). Moreover, meaningful existence mediated the effect of ostracism on darkness judgment (Studies 1 and 2). In addition, trait self-compassion moderated the indirect effect such that the mediation effect was observed only among participants with low trait self-compassion (Study 2). The current findings show that trait self-compassion is a potential resource for people to quell the adverse effects of ostracism on psychological well-being and perceptual judgments of the environment.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
Data are available upon reasonable request.
References
Barnard, L. K., & Curry, J. F. (2011). Self-compassion: Conceptualizations, correlates, & interventions. Review of General Psychology, 15(4), 289–303. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025754
Barsalou, L. W. (2008). Grounded cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 617–645. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093639
Blackie, R. A., & Kocovski, N. L. (2019). Trait self-compassion as a buffer against post-event processing following performance feedback. Mindfulness, 10(5), 923–932. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-018-1052-7
Bozkurt, S., & Gligor, D. (2019). Scarcity (versus popularity) cues for rejected customers: The impact of social exclusion on cue types through need for uniqueness. Journal of Business Research, 99, 275–281. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.02.071
Brunnström, G., So ̈rensen, S., Alsterstad, K., & Sjo ̈strand, J. (2004). Quality of light and quality of life—The effect of lighting adaptation among people with low vision. Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics, 24, 274–280. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-1313.2004.00192.x
Charness, G., Gneezy, U., & Kuhn, M. A. (2012). Experimental methods: Between-subject and within-subject design. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 81(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2011.08.009
Chen, Z., Poon, K. T., & DeWall, C. N. (2015a). Cold thermal temperature threatens belonging: The moderating role of perceived social support. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 6(4), 439–446. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550614562843
Chen, Z., Poon, K. T., & DeWall, C. N. (2015b). When do socially accepted people feel ostracized? Physical pain triggers social pain. Social Influence, 10(1), 68–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/15534510.2014.926290
Chen, Z., Poon, K. T., DeWall, C. N., & Jiang, T. (2020). Life lacks meaning without acceptance: Ostracism triggers suicidal thoughts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 119(6), 1423–1443. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000238
Chu, A. T. (2012). The sample size study of moderated mediation effect [Unpublished doctoral dissertation, National University of Kaohsiung]. http://www.stat.nuk.edu.tw/upfile/graduate/paper/100-2/m0994407.pdf
Chu, X. W., Fan, C. Y., Liu, Q. Q., & Zhou, Z. K. (2018). Cyberbullying victimization and symptoms of depression and anxiety among Chinese adolescents: Examining hopelessness as a mediator and self-compassion as a moderator. Computers in Human Behavior, 86, 377–386. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.04.039
de Waal-Andrews, W., & Van Beest, I. (2018). A sweeter win: When others help us outperform them. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 74, 218–230. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2017.10.004
DeWall, C. N., Baumeister, R. F., & Vohs, K. D. (2008). Satiated with belongingness? Effects of acceptance, rejection, and task framing on self-regulatory performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(6), 1367–1382. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012632
Dong, P., Huang, X., & Zhong, C. B. (2015). Ray of hope: Hopelessness increases preferences for brighter lighting. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 6(1), 84–91. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550614542344
Dreisoerner, A., Junker, N. M., & Van Dick, R. (2021). The relationship among the components of self-compassion: A pilot study using a compassionate writing intervention to enhance self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness. Journal of Happiness Studies, 22(1), 21–47. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-019-00217-4
Dvir, M., Kelly, J. R., & Williams, K. D. (2019). Is inclusion a valid control for ostracism? The Journal of Social Psychology, 159(1), 106–111. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2018.1460301
Ewert, C., Vater, A., & Schröder-Abé, M. (2021). Self-compassion and coping: A meta-analysis. Mindfulness, 12(5), 1063–1077. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-020-01563-8
Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Buchner, A., & Lang, A. G. (2009). Statistical power analyses using G*Power 3.1: Tests for correlation and regression analyses. Behavior Research Methods, 41, 1149–1160. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.41.4.1149
Ferrari, M., Hunt, C., Harrysunker, A., Abbott, M. J., Beath, A. P., & Einstein, D. A. (2019). Self-compassion interventions and psychosocial outcomes: A meta-analysis of RCTs. Mindfulness, 10(8), 1455–1473. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-019-01134-6
Fiedler, K., Harris, C., & Schott, M. (2018). Unwarranted inferences from statistical mediation tests–An analysis of articles published in 2015. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 75, 95–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2017.11.008
Finlay-Jones, A., Xie, Q., Huang, X., Ma, X., & Guo, X. (2018). A pilot study of the 8-week mindful self-compassion training program in a Chinese community sample. Mindfulness, 9(3), 993–1002. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-017-0838-3
Frazier, P. A., Tix, A. P., & Barron, K. E. (2004). Testing moderator and mediator effects in counseling psychology research. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 51(1), 115–134. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.51.1.115
Friberg, T. R., Bremer, R. W., & Dickinsen, M. (2008). Diminished perception of light as a symptom of depression: Further studies. Journal of Affective Disorders, 108(3), 235–240. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2007.10.021
Gerber, J. P., Chang, S. H., & Reimel, H. (2017). Construct validity of Williams’ ostracism needs threat scale. Personality and Individual Differences, 115, 50–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.07.008
Hayes, A. F. (2017). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. Guilford Publications.
Huang, X. I., Dong, P., & Labroo, A. A. (2018). Feeling disconnected from others: The effects of ambient darkness on hedonic choice. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 35(1), 144–153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2017.12.005
IJzerman, H., Gallucci, M., Pouw, W. T. J. L., Weiβgerber, S. C., Van Doesum, N. J., & Williams, K. D. (2012). Cold-blooded loneliness: Social exclusion leads to lower skin temperatures. Acta Psychologica, 140(3), 283–288. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2012.05.002
Ivtzan, I., Young, T., Lee, H. C., Lomas, T., Daukantaitė, D., & Kjell, O. N. (2018). Mindfulness based flourishing program: a cross-cultural study of Hong Kong Chinese and British participants. Journal of Happiness Studies, 19(8), 2205–2223. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-017-9919-1
Jiang, T., & Chen, Z. (2020). Meaning in life accounts for the association between long-term ostracism and depressive symptoms: The moderating role of self-compassion. The Journal of Social Psychology, 160(5), 535–547. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2019.1693951
Jiang, Y., & Poon, K. T. (2021). Stuck in companionless days, end up in sleepless nights: Relationships between ostracism, rumination, insomnia, and subjective well-being. Current Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01474-4
Kimel, S. Y., Mischkowski, D., Kitayama, S., & Uchida, Y. (2017). Culture, emotions, and the cold shoulder: Cultural differences in the anger and sadness response to ostracism. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 48(9), 1307–1319. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022117724900
Knowles, M. L., Green, A., & Weidel, A. (2014). Social rejection biases estimates of interpersonal distance. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 5(2), 158–167. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550613491972
Koch, E. J. (2020). Remembering that “Everybody Hurts”: The role of self-compassion in responses to rejection. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 42(3), 167–175. https://doi.org/10.1080/01973533.2020.1726748
Kross, E., Berman, M. G., Mischel, W., Smith, E. E., & Wager, T. D. (2011). Social rejection shares somatosensory representations with physical pain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(15), 6270–6275. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1102693108
Kyeong, L. W. (2013). Self-compassion as a moderator of the relationship between academic burn-out and psychological health in Korean cyber university students. Personality and Individual Difference, 54(8), 899–902. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2013.01.001
Lathren, C. R., Rao, S. S., Park, J., & Bluth, K. (2021). Self-compassion and current close interpersonal relationships: A scoping literature review. Mindfulness, 12, 1078–1093. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-020-01566-5
Leary, M. R., Tate, E. B., Adams, C. E., Allen, B., A., & Hancock, J. (2007). Self-compassion and reactions to unpleasant self-relevant events: The implications of treating oneself kindly. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(5), 887–904. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.5.887
Li, B. (2007). Drinking alone with the moon I (W. Bynner, Thans.). In J. E. Ward (Ed.), Li Bai: An homage to. Lulu Press. (Original work published 744)
Liu, Q. Q., & Hu, Y. T. (2020). Self-compassion mediates and moderates the association between harsh parenting and depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescent. Current Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-01034-2
Liu, S., Li, C. I., Wang, C., Wei, M., & Ko, S. (2020). Self-compassion and social connectedness buffering racial discrimination on depression among Asian Americans. Mindfulness, 11(3), 672–682. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-019-01275-8
Lu, F. C., & Sinha, J. (2017). Speaking to the heart: Social exclusion and reliance on feelings versus reasons in persuasion. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 27(4), 409–421. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcps.2017.03.004
MacBeth, A., & Gumley, A. (2012). Exploring compassion: A meta-analysis of the association between self-compassion and psychopathology. Clinical Psychology Review, 32(6), 545–552. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2012.06.003
Maratos, F. A., & Sheffield, D. (2020). Brief compassion-focused imagery dampens physiological pain responses. Mindfulness, 11(12), 2730–2740. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-020-01485-5
Meral, E. O., van Osch, Y., Ren, D., van Dijk, E., & van Beest, I. (2021). The anticipated social cost of disclosing a rejection experience. European Journal of Social Psychology, 51(7), 1181–1197. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2807
Molet, M., Macquet, B., Lefebvre, O., & Williams, K. D. (2013). A focused attention intervention for coping with ostracism. Consciousness and Cognition, 22(4), 1262–1270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2013.08.010
Muris, P., Otgaar, H., & Petrocchi, N. (2016). Protection as the mirror image of psychopathology: further critical notes on the self-compassion scale. Mindfulness, 7(3), 787–790. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-016-0509-9
Muris, P., & Petrocchi, N. (2017). Protection or vulnerability? A meta-analysis of the relations between the positive and negative components of self‐compassion and psychopathology. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 24(2), 373–383. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.2005
Neff, K. (2003). The development and validation of a scale to measure self-compassion. Self and Identity, 2(3), 223–250. https://doi.org/10.1080/1552988
Neff, K. D. (2016). The self-compassion scale is a valid and theoretically coherent measure of self-compassion. Mindfulness, 7(1), 264–274. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-015-0479-3
Neff, K. D., Whittaker, T. A., & Karl, A. (2017). Examining the Factor Structure of the Self-Compassion Scale in Four Distinct Populations: Is the Use of a Total Scale Score Justified? Journal of Personality Assessment, 99(6), 596–607. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2016.1269334
Nerini, A., Matera, C., Di Gesto, C., Policardo, G. R., & Stefanile, C. (2019). Exploring the links between self-compassion, body dissatisfaction, and acceptance of cosmetic surgery in young Italian women. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 2698. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02698
Pfundmair, M., Danböck, S. K., & Agthe, M. (2019). Out of the dark, into the light: The impact of social exclusion on judgments of darkness and brightness. Acta Psychologica, 199, 102901. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2019.102901
Pharo, H., Gross, J., Richardson, R., & Hayne, H. (2011). Age-related changes in the effect of ostracism. Social Influence, 6(1), 22–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/15534510.2010.525852
Pickett, C. L., Gardner, W. L., & Knowles, M. (2004). Getting a cue: The need to belong and enhanced sensitivity to social cues. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30(9), 1095–1107. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167203262085
Poon, K. T. (2018). Unpacking the mechanisms underlying the relation between ostracism and Internet addiction. Psychiatry Research, 270, 724–730. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2018.10.056
Poon, K. T. (2019). Do you reap what you sow? The effect of cyberostracism on moral impurity. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 41(2), 132–146. https://doi.org/10.1080/01973533.2019.1585353
Poon, K. T., Chen, Z., & DeWall, C. N. (2013). Feeling entitled to more: Ostracism increases dishonest behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39(9), 1227–1239. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167213493187
Poon, K. T., Chen, Z., & Wong, W. Y. (2020). Beliefs in conspiracy theories following ostracism. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 46(8), 1234–1246. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167219898944
Poon, K. T., & Jiang, Y. (2020). Getting less likes on social media: Mindfulness ameliorates the detrimental effects of feeling left out online. Mindfulness, 11(4), 1038–1048. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-020-01313-w
Poon, K. T., & Teng, F. (2017). Feeling unrestricted by rules: Ostracism promotes aggressive responses. Aggressive Behavior, 43(6), 558–567. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21714
Poon, K. T., Teng, F., Chow, J. T., & Chen, Z. (2015). Desiring to connect to nature: The effect of ostracism on ecological behavior. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 42, 116–122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2015.03.003
Poon, K. T., & Wong, W. Y. (2019). Turning a blind eye to potential costs: Ostracism increases aggressive tendency. Psychology of Violence, 9(6), 634–643. https://doi.org/10.1037/vio0000195
Raes, F., Pommier, E., Neff, K. D., & Van Gucht, D. (2011). Construction and factorial validation of a short form of the self-compassion scale. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 18(3), 250–255. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.702
Riva, P., Montali, L., Wirth, J. H., Curioni, S., & Williams, K. D. (2017). Chronic social exclusion and evidence for the resignation stage: An empirical investigation. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 34(4), 541–564. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407516644348
Sbarra, D. A., Smith, H. L., & Mehl, M. R. (2012). When leaving your ex, love yourself: Observational ratings of self-compassion predict the course of emotional recovery following marital separation. Psychological Science, 23(3), 261–269. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611429466
Schoemann, A. M., Boulton, A. J., & Short, S. D. (2017). Determining power and sample size for simple and complex mediation models. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 8(4), 379–386. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550617715068
Smith, R. H., & Harris, M. J. (2006). Multimethod approaches in social psychology: Between- and within-method replication and multimethod assessment. In E. Michael & S. Diener (Ed.), Handbook of multimethod measurement in psychology (pp. 385–400). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/11383-026
Tomlinson, E. R., Yousaf, O., Vittersø, A. D., & Jones, L. (2018). Dispositional mindfulness and psychological health: A systematic review. Mindfulness, 9(1), 23–43. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-017-0762-6
Uskul, A. K., & Over, H. (2017). Culture, social interdependence, and ostracism. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 26(4), 371–376. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721417699300
van Beest, I., Carter-Sowell, A. R., van Dijk, E., & Williams, K. D. (2012). Groups being ostracized by groups: Is the pain shared, is recovery quicker, and are groups more likely to be aggressive? Group Dynamics: Theory Research and Practice, 16(4), 241–254. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030104
Williams, K. D. (2009). Ostracism: A temporal need-threat model. In M. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 41, pp. 275–314). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(08)00406-1
Williams, K. D., Cheung, C. K., & Choi, W. (2000). Cyberostracism: Effects of being ignored over the Internet. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(5), 748. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.79.5.748
Williams, K. D., & Jarvis, B. (2006). Cyberball: A program for use in research on interpersonal ostracism and acceptance. Behavior Research Methods, 38(1), 174–180. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03192765
Wolf, W., Levordashka, A., Ruff, J. R., Kraaijeveld, S., Lueckmann, J. M., & Williams, K. D. (2015). Ostracism Online: A social media ostracism paradigm. Behavior Research Methods, 47(2), 361–373. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-014-0475-x
Zhang, X., Zuo, B., Erskine, K., & Hu, T. (2016). Feeling light or dark? Emotions affect perception of brightness. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 47, 107–111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2016.05.007
Zhong, C. B., Bohns, V. K., & Gino, F. (2010). Good lamps are the best police: Darkness increases dishonesty and self-interested behavior. Psychological Science, 21(3), 311–314. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797609360754
Zhong, C. B., & Leonardelli, G. J. (2008). Cold and lonely: Does social exclusion literally feel cold? Psychological Science, 19(9), 838–842. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02165
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council’s Early Career Scheme (28603715), the Hong Kong Research Grants Council?s General Research Fund (18611121), and The Education University of Hong Kong’s Internal Research Grant (RG85/2018-2019R).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethical approval
This study received prior ethical approval from the Human Research Ethics Committee of the Education University of Hong Kong. All procedures performed were in accordance with the ethical standards.
Informed consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Jiang, Y., Poon, KT. Pull yourself out of a dark place: Self-compassion moderates the relationships between ostracism, meaningful existence, and darkness judgment. Curr Psychol 42, 28394–28405 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03838-w
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03838-w