The effects of ostracism on preschoolers' over-imitation behaviors.

Over-imitation represents an early developing behavior implicated in the emergence of learning, affective, and social competences. Adult over-imitation is heavily affected by contextual variables such as social ostracism, the experience of being ignored by others in a social context, an experience that threatens several psychological needs, inducing the urge to reaffiliate with a social group to restore the original state of well-being. Yet, the impact of social ostracism on over-imitation in children remains unclear.