Ostracism results in decreased levels of belonging, self-esteem, control, and meaningful existence, and can lead to aggression (Williams, 1997, 2001). It was predicted communication, in the form of a similarity message, would mitigate the effect of ostracism on aggression and would restore levels of fundamental needs. To test these predictions, participants were either ostracized or not ostracized, received either a similarity message or no message, and were measured for levels of aggression and fundamental needs. Ostracized participants felt less included and used more aggression than did non-ostracized participants. Message presence produced lower levels of meaningful existence for ostracized participants who did not receive a similarity message compared to participants who were not ostracized and ostracized participants who did receive a message. Message presence did not yield differences in the other three levels of fundamental needs. Results and implications for future research are discussed.
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