Social rejection

"When a rule is enforced, the person who is supposed to have broken it may be seen as a special kind of person, one who cannot be trusted to live by the rules agreed upon by the group. He is regarded as an outsider. But the person who is thus labeled an outsider may have a different view of the matter. He may not accept the rule by which he is being judged and may not regard those who judge him as either competent or legitimately entitled to do so."

"Males tend to take rejection as a challenge to their masculinity or an insult to their perceived place in the social hierarchy. Women are likely to feel emotionally hurt by the rejection and to assume that there is something lacking in them that warranted the rejection. Women are encouraged to ‘get over it,’ but men often feel the need to ‘get even.’"

"The human fear of social rejection is so hard-wired that it can be harnessed to direct our speech, our behavior, our relationships, and our thoughts."