'I'm out of the loop': Ostracism through information exclusion

Abstract

'Out-of-the-loop' experiences, or situations where people perceive being uninformed of information mutually known by others, pervade people's lives. Two experiments examined the psychological impact of this form of partial ostracism. In Experiment 1, compared to in-the-loop participants, out-of-the-loop participants experienced a variety of deleterious effects (e.g. depleted fundamental needs), even without significant costs for being uninformed. In Experiment 2, out-of-the-loop participants were led to believe that their lack of information resulted from their group members' decisions or chance. Unlike those who experience complete ostracism, participants typically reported negative psychological consequences only when group members were responsible for the exclusion decision. Information exclusion also affected factors related to group dynamics (e.g. liking and trust of group members), which may ultimately harm group functioning. Taken together, these studies demonstrate the social and psychological importance of being in the information loop in group settings.