O-Cam: A new paradigm for investigating the effects of ostracism

A new ostracism paradigm—O-Cam—was designed to combine the best qualities of both social ostracism (i.e., face-to-face interaction between the target and sources of ostracism) and cyber ostracism (i.e., confederatefree, highly controlled designs) paradigms. O-Cam consists of a simulated Web conference during which participants are either ostracized or included by 2 other participants whose actions, unbeknownst to the participants, are actually pretaped. The findings of preliminary studies indicate that O-Cam provides a powerful ostracism experience that yields psychological and behavioral responses that are consistent with those in other ostracism paradigms (e.g., Cyberball; Williams, 2007). Moreover, unlike in many previous ostracism paradigms, O-Cam provides researchers with the flexibility to manipulate the physical appearance and the verbal/nonbehavior of the sources of ostracism without the need for confederates.