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Feeling authentic serves as a buffer against rejection

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  • Gino, Francesca
  • Kouchaki, Maryam

Abstract

Social exclusion is a painful yet common experience in many people’s personal and professional lives. This research demonstrates that feeling authentic serves as a buffer against social rejection, leading people to experience less social pain. Across five studies, using different manipulations of authenticity, different paradigms to create social exclusion, and different measures of feeling rejected, we found that experiencing authenticity led participants to appraise situations as less threatening and to experience lower feelings of rejection from the social exclusion. We also found that perceived threat explains these effects. Our findings suggest that authenticity may be an underused resource for people who perceive themselves to be, or actually are, socially excluded or ostracized. This research has diverse and important implications: Interventions that increase authenticity could be used to reduce perceptions of threatening situations and the pain of impending exclusion episodes in situations ranging from adjustment to college to organizational orientation programs.

Suggested Citation

  • Gino, Francesca & Kouchaki, Maryam, 2020. "Feeling authentic serves as a buffer against rejection," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 36-50.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jobhdp:v:160:y:2020:i:c:p:36-50
    DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2020.03.006
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Wu, Chia-Huei & Liu, Jun & Kwong Kwan, Ho & Lee, Cynthia, 2016. "Why and when workplace ostracism inhibits organizational citizenship behaviors: an organizational identification perspective," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 64006, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Nicole L. Mead & Roy F. Baumeister & Tyler F. Stillman & Catherine D. Rawn & Kathleen D. Vohs, 2011. "Social Exclusion Causes People to Spend and Consume Strategically in the Service of Affiliation," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 37(5), pages 902-919.
    3. Derfler-Rozin, Rellie & Pillutla, Madan & Thau, Stefan, 2010. "Social reconnection revisited: The effects of social exclusion risk on reciprocity, trust, and general risk-taking," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 112(2), pages 140-150, July.
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