The ostracism, pain and group membership

How many times have we found with a bad feeling, like repulse, after that our friends didn´t call us for a determinate plan? The Ostracism is a behaviour which a group of people shut out to one person. This behaviour have been practiced for a long time, and also, we can find it in other no-humans species.

One of the most principal ostracism´s feature is that it impacts to everybody. Despite them not having a trait of personality more or less different, everybody suffers. People who suffer the ostracism, has an emotional answer which appears quickly. Also, these people suffers high stress, a loss of the self and the stem; and feelings of anger. If we could see an image of MRI, we would see a high activity in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex.

However, we would be able to recover earlier than other people, if we had one or the other a trait of personality. People who suffer anxiety social and depression suffer theirs symptoms longer than other people who no suffer them (William et col. 2006).

The ostracism is an answer from a social exclusion that people normally do because one person has done a bad behaviour: if you smoke cigarettes in a bar where you mustn’t, people who you are will punish you (of many ways: discussions, fight, social exclusion…).  Consequently, you will suffer bad feelings, like I have told before of this instance. The ostracism have a functional answer: right the bad behaviour.

Kipling Williams et col did in 2000 one study where took part 1486 people of many countries, played to the BallCyber (this is a virtual game where one person play whit a ball, and can have two answers different: in the first you can be competitor, and the second, you can be one ignored person by the artificial intelligence). After the game, the researchers evaluated the psychological state competitors. They found out that the ignored people suffered bad feelings, like repulse to be in a group. Williams concluded that the exclusion, be able to trigger a strong emotional answer.

If we want to understand better the functional response to pain, we can suggest that people need to appertain in a group. When people don´t want us in a group, we feel frustrated and our brain detects a physical and psychological disease (Baumeister, Leary 1995).

Our brain suffer the bad feelings of the ostracism in the same brain region where pain affects it. Williams wanted to check it. He return to do the same research, but this time, the competitors had a scanner to MRI in their heads. Williams found out a high activity in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex. Furthermore, he chose 25 students and divided them in two groups: the first take a analgesic, and the other group, one placebo. After the game, William saw how the competitors who took the analgesic showed lesser activity brain in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex than the other group. These discoveries suggest that the social exclusion and physical pain share the same neural ways.

How could we do to recover us to the bad feelings of the ostracism?

There are many tips and tricks that can help us. One of them, is go out the place where there is a conflict. Also we can say ourselves positive messages.

Come to an end, we can avoid prejudices, and take like best solution that we give a suggestion when two people don´t want to do the same thing, or visit the same place.