Shunning
Shunning is the act of deliberately avoiding association with, and habitually keeping away from an individual or group. It is a sanction against association often associated with religious groups and other tightly-knit organisations and communities. Targets of shunning can include, but are not limited to apostates, whistle blowers, dissidents, people classified as "sinners" or "traitors" and other people who defy or who fail to comply with the standards established by the shunning group(s). Shunning has a long history as a means of organisational influence and control. Extreme forms of shunning and related practices have rendered the general practice controversial in some circles.
Purposes
Shunning can be broken down into behaviors and practices that seek to accomplish either or both of two primary goals.
- To modify the behavior of a member. This approach seeks to influence, encourage, or coerce normative behaviours from members, and may seek to dissuade, provide disincentives for, or to compel avoidance of certain behaviors. Shunning may include disassociating the member by other members of the community who are in good standing. It may include more antagonistic psychological behaviors (described below). This approach may be seen as either corrective or punitive (or both) by the group membership or leadership, and may also be intended as a deterrent.
- To remove or limit the influence of a member (or former member) over other members in a community. This approach may seek to isolate, to discredit, or otherwise dis-empower such a member, often in the context of actions or positions advocated by that member. For groups with defined membership criteria, especially based on key behaviors or ideological precepts, this approach may be seen as limiting damage to the community or its leadership. This is often paired with some form of excommunication.
Some less often practiced variants may seek to:
- Remove a specific member from general external influence to provide an ideological or psychological buffer against external views or behavior. The amount can vary from severing ties to opponents of the group up to and including severing all non-group-affiliated intercourse.
Shunning is usually approved of (if sometimes with regret) by the group engaging in the shunning, and usually highly disapproved of by the target of the shunning, resulting in a polarization of views. Those subject to the practice respond differently, usually depending both on the circumstances of the event, and the nature of the practices being applied. Extreme forms of shunning have damaged some individuals' psychological and relational health. Extreme responses to the practice have developed, mostly around anti-shunning advocacy; such advocates highlight the detrimental effects of many of such behaviors, and seek to limit the practice through pressure or law. Such groups often operate supportive organizations or institutions to help victims of shunning to recover from damaging effects, and sometimes to attack the organizations practicing shunning, as a part of their advocacy.
In many civil societies, kinds of shunning are practiced de-facto or de-jure, to coerce or avert behaviors or associations deemed unhealthy. This can include:
- restraining orders or peace bonds (to avoid abusive relationships)
- court injunctions to disassociate (to avoid criminal association or temptation)
- medical or psychological instructing to avoid associating (to avoid hazardous relations, i.e. *alcoholics being instructed to avoid friendship with non-recovering alcoholics, or asthmatics *being medically instructed to keep to smoke-free environs)
- using background checks to avoid hiring people who have criminal records (to avoid association *with felons, even when the crimes have nothing to do with the job description)
These effects are seen as positive by society, though often not by the affected parties.
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