Creating the silence: ostracism from the perspective of the source

There are two sides to every conict. Within each ostracism episode, there is a dynamic interplay between the target (the person being excluded and ignored) and the source (the person/group that is excluding and ignoring). Given the vast possibilities for ostracism in our day-to-day lives-in the schoolyard, the home, and the workplace-we will all experience ostracism from the perspective of both the target and the source. In fact, in a phone survey of more than 2,000 U.S. citizens, 67 percent of respondents had regularly given the “silent treatment”, whereas 75 percent reported that the silent treatment had been used on them (Faulkner, Williams, Sherman, & Williams, 1997).