Project description
Understanding how everyday ostracism can escalate into societal issues
Ostracism, ghosting, and bullying can lead to serious psychological effects, including depression and aggression. Current research struggles to prove cause and effect, highlighting the need for better methods to understand these impacts. The ERC-funded O-Causal project aims to apply causal inference methods to the study of ostracism. It will explore the prevalence and distribution of lived ostracism experiences, quantify the effects of ostracism across behavioural, economic, health, and well-being outcomes. It will also identify inequalities and at-risk populations and reformulate causal questions to inform public policies for positive social change. Using advanced causal techniques, the project will reveal how everyday ostracism can escalate into societal issues and identify vulnerable groups, guiding research and policy.
Objective
Ostracism—being ignored or excluded— manifests in many forms in everyday life, such as ghosting, bullying, microaggressions, and cancel culture. For decades, psychologists have examined its real-world impacts, including depression, suicide risk, violence, extremism, societal divides, and inequalities. However, much of this evidence is not causal due to the absence of tools for quantifying the causal effects of naturally occurring exposures in psychological science. Relying on the existing approach will continue to distort scientific conclusions, impede theory advancement, and misguide policies. Re-thinking the current causal approach is critical and overdue.
The O-Causal project aims to address this gap by applying the causal inference framework—a principled and well-established approach for causality—to ostracism research. This project will advance the field in four key ways: 1) establishing a fundamental understanding of the prevalence and distribution of lived ostracism experiences in real-life settings; 2) quantifying the time-varying ostracism effects across a wide range of outcomes in behavioral, economic, health, and wellbeing domains; 3) uncovering inequalities in ostracism and identifying at-risk populations; and 4) reformulating causal questions to generate insights that inform public policies aimed at fostering positive social change.
To achieve these goals, I will construct a comprehensive, population-based dataset by integrating large longitudinal panel data, daily diary entries, and ecological momentary assessments. Using advanced causal inference techniques and innovative causal estimands, this project will reveal how everyday experiences of ostracism can escalate into serious societal issues, identify vulnerable groups, and provide a foundation for policy development. Ultimately, this project will reorient ostracism research and psychological science toward a more rigorous causal approach toward scientific rigor and real-world impact.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
6200 MD Maastricht
Netherlands
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.