Anxiety Concerning Social Exclusion: Innate Response or One Consequence of the Need for Terror Management?

We present a critique of Baumeister and Tice's (this issue) social exclusion theory, which states that humans' innate need to belong causes anxiety whenever social bonds are threatened or broken. We point out that this instinct theory cannot account for why some individuals seek many social bonds and some seek few, why some individuals experience a great deal of anxiety when a particular bond is threatened and some experience very little, and why, for a given individual, threats to some social bonds cause more anxiety than threats to other social bonds. The basic problem with social exclusion theory is that it offers no explanation of the psychological functions of social bonds and no account of the development of social preferences. We then explain how terror management theory explains anxiety engendered by threats to social bonds. Finally, we refute a number of Baumeister and Tice's criticisms of terror management theory.