AUTHOR=Zhang Denghao , Li Sen , Shao Lei , Hales Andrew H. , Williams Kipling D. , Teng Fei 

TITLE=Ostracism Increases Automatic Aggression: The Role of Anger and Forgiveness

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2019

YEAR=2019

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02659

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02659

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=While research on the “ostracism-aggression” link has focused on controlled processes in aggression, little effort has been devoted to examining the relation between ostracism and automatic aggression. Based on theories of aggression, we found that ostracized participants reported higher levels of automatic aggression than included participants (Studies 1 and 2). Furthermore, the association between ostracism and automatic aggression was mediated by anger and was especially prominent for people low in forgiveness (as compared to people high in forgiveness; Study 3). Implications of these findings were discussed.