Christiane Büttner (PhD, Society & Choice Program, 2024), now a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Psychology at Stanford University, has received the 2026 Best Paper Award from the International Society for the Science of Existential Psychology (ISSEP). 

The award honors the article “Ostracism in everyday life: A framework of threat and behavioral responses in real life”, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

The article examines the frequency and consequences of feeling ignored or excluded (ostracized) in daily life. Drawing on two large smartphone-based experience sampling studies, the research followed hundreds of participants in real time and documented nearly 2,000 everyday ostracism experiences. The findings show that such experiences are common and often occur in close relationships and at work. The findings further illustrate that even brief moments of being ignored can threaten fundamental psychological needs, such as belonging, self-esteem, control, and meaning. Critically, people respond differently depending on how strongly these needs are threatened: When exclusion feels particularly painful, individuals are more likely to withdraw or react antisocially; however, when the threat is less intense, individuals are more likely to seek reconnection by acting prosocial. 

By studying social exclusion as it unfolds in real life, the project advances our understanding of how everyday interpersonal experiences shape well-being and social behavior. 

This research was led by Christiane Büttner during her PhD at the University of Basel in collaboration with an international research team: Prof. Dongning Ren (Maastricht University, the Netherlands), Prof. Olga Stavrova (University of Mannheim, Germany; Tilburg University, the Netherlands), Prof. Selma Rudert (University of Kaiserslautern-Landau, Germany), Prof. Kip Williams (Purdue University, USA), and Prof. Rainer Greifeneder (University of Basel).

The full article is available here: https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000471