Pressure of the past: How Recalling Ostracism influences risk and benefit perception

Newton, Joseph and Von Hecker, Ulrich ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8873-0515 2025. Pressure of the past: How Recalling Ostracism influences risk and benefit perception. Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences 2025 (19) , pp. 1-22.

PDF - Published Version Download (603kB)

Abstract

The affect heuristic suggests that emotional responses significantly influence perceptions of risk and benefit. We extend this model to test how recalling ostracism affects these perceptions across financial, health, and social domains, and test how time pressure moderates these effects. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: recalling either a time they were ostracized (ostracism condition) or included (inclusion condition), followed by evaluating risk and benefit scenarios under time pressure or no time pressure. While a growing body of evidence has linked ostracism to increases in risky decision-making, we found that recalling ostracism led to domain-specific, bi-directional changes in risk and benefit perception. Ostracized individuals perceived lower risk in financial and health domains but higher risk in social contexts. Time pressure further intensified these effects, strengthening the inverse relationship between risk and benefit perceptions. Under time pressure, ostracized participants reported greater perceived benefits of financial risks and lower perceived benefits of social risks. These findings support the hypothesis that ostracism shapes risk and benefit perceptions in a domain-specific way, with time pressure amplifying these effects through heightened affective responses.

Item Type:	Article
Status:	Published
Schools:	Psychology
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	5 February 2025
Date of Acceptance:	31 January 2025
Last Modified:	13 Feb 2025 12:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/175971

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item