Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2009 Apr;116(2):365-83.
doi: 10.1037/a0015250.

Reactions to discrimination, stigmatization, ostracism, and other forms of interpersonal rejection: a multimotive model

Laura Smart Richman  1 , Mark R Leary
Affiliations
Review

Reactions to discrimination, stigmatization, ostracism, and other forms of interpersonal rejection: a multimotive model

Laura Smart Richman et al. Psychol Rev. 2009 Apr.

Abstract

This article describes a new model that provides a framework for understanding people's reactions to threats to social acceptance and belonging as they occur in the context of diverse phenomena such as rejection, discrimination, ostracism, betrayal, and stigmatization. People's immediate reactions are quite similar across different forms of rejection in terms of negative affect and lowered self-esteem. However, following these immediate responses, people's reactions are influenced by construals of the rejection experience that predict 3 distinct motives for prosocial, antisocial, and socially avoidant behavioral responses. The authors describe the relational, contextual, and dispositional factors that affect which motives determine people's reactions to a rejection experience and the ways in which these 3 motives may work at cross-purposes. The multimotive model accounts for the myriad ways in which responses to rejection unfold over time and offers a basis for the next generation of research on interpersonal rejection.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Multimotive model of reactions to interpersonal rejection experiences.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Abrams D, Hogg MA, Marques JM. The social psychology of inclusion and exclusion. Psychology Press; New York: 2005.
    1. Anderson CM, Martin MM. The effects of communication motives, interaction involvement, and loneliness on satisfaction. Small Group Research. 1995;26:118–137.
    1. Anderson ER, Greene SM, Walker L, Malerba CA, Forgatch MS, DeGarmo OS. Ready to take a chance again: Transitions into dating among divorced parents. Journal of Divorce and Remarriage. 2004;40:61–75.
    1. Asher SR, Coie JD. Peer rejection in childhood. Cambridge University Press; New York: 1990.
    1. Asher SR, Rose AJ, Gabriel SW. Peer rejection in everyday life. In: Leary MR, editor. Interpersonal rejection. Oxford University Press; New York: 2001. pp. 105–142.

Publication types