View article

BACKGROUND

The Need to Belong theory suggests that one should have certain levels of satisfied belongingness to engage in aggressive behavior (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). Past research has shown that social rejection and ostracism lead to opposing behavioral outcomes ranging from aggressive and antisocial behavior to prosocial responses (Warburton et al., 2006; Balliet & Ferris, 2013). There is evidence that behavioral responses following ostracism are determined by availability of aggression-related cognition (DeWall, 2009). The present study investigated the moderating role of trait loneliness on the effect of ostracism on aggressive cognition.