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Being Sensitive To Positives Has Its Negatives: An Approach/Avoidance Perspective On Reactivity To Ostracism, Ferris D. Lance, Shereen Fatimah, Ming Yan, Lindie H. Liang, Huiwen Lian, Douglas J. Brown

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Workplace mistreatment is typically conceptualized as being exposed to a negative stimulus – for example, a threat, verbal abuse, or other forms of harassment. Consequently, we expect workplace mistreatment will have the greatest effect on individuals who are sensitive to the presence and absence of negative stimuli – or those with a strong avoidance temperament. Although this may be the rule for most mistreatment constructs, we argue that ostracism may be the exception. Using an approach/avoidance framework to highlight unique elements of ostracism, we build on the definition of ostracism as being the absence of an expected positive stimulus (i.e., …