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=10 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). The implications of these findings are discussed.