Excluded or belonging: first contacts are crucial

Exclusion within a group serves to put free riders, unpleasant or uncooperative people in their place and thus promote cooperation. This has been the assumption of studies to date. However, exclusion can also be observed in situations where no discipline is necessary and the selection of victims appears random. When asked about the reasons for their behavior, the people from whom the exclusion originates emphasize that they do not intend to exclude anyone at all.Against this background, the two researchers Björn Lindström and Philippe Tobler from the Institute of Economics at the University of Zurich suspected that, contrary to previous assumptions, social exclusion often does not happen on purpose, but rather by chance. They therefore investigated how exclusion arises in groups, how it develops over time and how it can be avoided.

Positive experiences are repeated

In a series of experiments, the researchers were able to confirm that social exclusion is not so much a deliberate disciplinary measure, but rather an unintended side effect. This occurs when people who have already had positive experiences as a group in previous situations join together. Simple learning mechanisms are responsible for this. If an initial, random interaction works well, the participants tend to repeat it. At the same time, however, this also means that others are excluded from this interaction and thus marginalized. "The tendency to repeat what works well is a basic aspect of human psychology. It causes us to stick to a satisfactory group composition," says Björn Lindström and illustrates the mechanism with two examples: "Cliques that form within a class at the beginning of a school year, for example, usually last until the end of the school year. In everyday working life, on the other hand, it sometimes takes years before we realize that the colleague a few offices away is actually also very likeable. But because he wasn't part of our initial contacts, he simply wasn't on our radar."

Exclusion can be prevented

In another experiment, the two researchers showed that the same mechanisms that lead to exclusion can also be used to prevent it - a finding that is particularly important for teachers and other people who organize groups and influence group dynamics. "Perhaps teachers can reduce exclusionary tendencies in their classes by giving their students the opportunity to form stable groups of two with certain classmates early on," says Philippe Tobler.And it can also be helpful for adults for whom the next networking event gives them a stomach ache to know the importance of an initial, positive interaction. "It might be worth taking the first step and breaking the ice," says Tobler. "Because once you've done that, the rest of the event is likely to go more smoothly."Literature:Björn Lindström and Philippe N. Tobler. Incidental ostracism emerges from simple learning mechanismsin Nature Human Behavior. May 28, 2018. doi: 10.1038/s41562-018-0355-y