Negative peer reactions from the perspective of the reactor.

Two studies were conducted to examine negative social reactions from the perspective of rejecting peers. The purpose of Study 1 was to test an attributional model of negative peer reactions in which perceptions of responsibility and specific emotions mediate between deviant peer characteristics and negative social responses. The more children perceived atypical classmates to be responsible for their idiosyncrasies, the more anger and less sympathy they reported. Anger increased rejection and decreased social support, whereas sympathy facilitated social support. In Study 2, the effects of responsibility perceptions and affective reactions (annoyance) on social responses were tested with an experimental design