The facilitation of aggression by aggression: evidence against the catharsis hypothesis.

Nnety male subjects were either attacked or treated in a more neutral manner by a male confederate. On a subsequent maze-learning task, one third of the subjects shocked the confederate, one third observed as the experimenter shocked the confederate, and one third waited for a period of time during which the confederate was not shocked. Finally, all subjects shocked the confederate as part of a code-learning task. Subjects who had been attacked and had shocked the confederate during the maze task delivered shocks of greater intensity on the code task did subjects in the other two conditions, and the former subjects also experienced a greater reduction in diastolic blood pressure than did the latter. The results contradict the hypothesis of aggression catharsis and are discussed in terms of feelings of restraint against aggressing that a subject experiences after committing an aggressive act.     

Annoyance, type and duration of postannoyance activity, and aggression: the "cathartic effect".

A series of experiments was conducted to elucidate the conditions conductive to a decrease in aggression following annoyance. The potential capacity of expression of aggression to bring about a reduction in the amount of subsequent aggression was of particular interest. This empirical concern was supplemented by tests of several influential and competing theoretical concepts dealing with the cathartic aspects of human aggressive behavior. Given the failure of such concepts to account for major portions of the data, an integrative theoretical model was proposed. experiment 1 evaluated the usefulness of the hydraulic, self-arousal, and dissipation of anger concepts in accounting for the earlier demonstrations of the cathartic effect. In a 2 x 3 x 2 design, half of the subjects were annoyed by a confederate, while the other half were treated neutrally. During the next stage (the interpolated period), a third of all subjects gave "shocks" to the confederate, another third simply waited, while the remaining third worked on mathematical problems. Orthogonal to the first two facotrs was the duration of the interpolated period (7 to 13 min). The main dependent measure was the number of shocks administered to the confederate in the final stage of the experiment. It was found that annoyed subjects gave more shocks than nonannoyed ones did, and that only the former were substantially affected by other manipulations. In the case of the annoyed wait and annoyed math subjects, the anger dissipation hypothesis correctly predicted that the mere passage of time would decrease the amount of subsequent aggression, presumably due to the action of homeostatic processes. The self-arousal hypothesis correctly predicted that the annoyed math subjects would give fewer shocks than the annoyed wait ones would. Since the subjects were engaged in an absorbing activity, the likelihood of their arousing themselves by ruminations about the preceding annoying incident was minimized, and the amount of subsequent aggression reduced. Yet, when annoyed subjects had given the confederate a moderate number of shocks in the interpolated period, they subsequently gave him fewer shocks than the 7-min annoyed wait and annoyed math subjects; this was the only outcome predicted correctly by the hydraulic model. In contrast, when a large number of shocks had been administered in the interpolated period, the amount of subsequent aggression was relatively high. The interpretation of the latter result in terms of an "adaption effect" was tested by further experiments.     

Biasing evaluations to appear unbiased: A self-presentational paradox

Subjects interviewed a confederate posing as a job applicant. In a 2 × 2 factorial design, half the subjects were insulted by the confederate at the end of the interview and half were not insulted. Half the subjects were observed by the experimenter during the final phase of the interview and evaluated the confederate publicly. The remaining subjects were unobserved during the interview and evaluated the confederate anonymously. As predicted, subjects who were publicly insulted were more favorable toward the confederate than were subjects who were privately insulted. Within the public/insult condition, subjects scoring high on Snyder's (1974, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 30, 526–537) self-monitoring scale were more favorable toward the confederate than were subjects scoring low on this scale. The positivity bias occurred only on highly subjective ratings, which are most prone to the appearance of bias. The results are discussed in terms of the subjects' desire to avoid the appearance of bias by biasing their evaluations.     

Using hypnosis to model Fregoli delusion and the impact of challenges on belief revision

Fregoli delusion involves the belief that strangers are known people in disguise. We aimed to model aspects of this delusion for the first time using hypnosis. We informed hypnotised subjects that someone would enter the room (a confederate) and they would believe this person was someone they knew in disguise. After testing their reaction to the confederate, we challenged their delusion by directly contradicting their belief and then asking them to focus on the confederate’s voice and gait. Finally, we indexed whether they could identify photographs of the confederate. We found that just over half of our high hypnotisable subjects identified the confederate as someone they knew in disguise. Although many highs abandoned their belief in response to challenges, some maintained strong, unwavering conviction that the confederate was a known person. We discuss these findings in terms of how evidence might be evaluated during both hypnotic and clinical delusions.     

Boys will be boys (and girls will be girls): The attribution of gender role stereotypes in a gaming situation

This study tested one hypothesis concerning the attribution of gender role stereotypes about competitive behavior and three hypotheses concerning differences in attribution of sex between male and female subjects. The study used a Prisoner's Dilemma Game setting to expose subjects to one of three conditions (competitive, cooperative, or tit-for-tat) to measure attribution of sex to an unknown confederate. A chi-square analysis revealed significant differences in the attribution of sex to the anonymous confederate between the competitive and the combined cooperative and tit-for-tat groups. In the competitive condition, subjects were more prone to think that the anonymous confederate was male than were subjects in the cooperative and tit-for-tat condition. This finding is consistent with the gender role stereotype that generally associates competitive behavior with masculinity and not with femininity. Post hoc chi-squares also revealed no difference between male and female subjects in the attribution of sex in any of the three conditions. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Rate of participation and expertise as factors influencing leader choice.

Seventy-two female subjects were placed in four-person problem-solving groups. A confederate in each group was identified as either expert or inexpert, made expert or inexpert contributions, and either talked a lot or relatively little. The problem was made high or low in ambiguity. It was hypothesized that, as previous studies have shown, a high rate of participation would influence choice of the confederate as leader in the inexpert condition but that talkativeness would not be influential in the expert condition. The results supported the hypothesis. The characteristics of the confederate were somewhat less influential when the problem was low in ambiguity. The results were discussed in terms of what talkativeness may signify to other group members. When talkativeness is not resisted by the group it is tentative evidence that the talker is perceived as an appropriate, qualified, and legitimate leader.     

The mediation of aggressive behavior: arousal level versus anger and cognitive labeling.

The principal goal of the present research was to contrast the arousal-level and cognitive-labeling (anger) interpretations of aggressive behavior. In a 2 X 5 factorial between-subjects design, subjects were first either insulated or treated neutrally by a confederate. Four fifths of the subjects then received on each of 50 trials a 10-sec tone sequence while deciding whether or not to give an "electric shock" to the confederate. The stimulation was either simple (4.00 bits/tone) or complex (9.17 bits/tone) and was presented at either a comfortable (73-d.) or an aversively loud (97-db.) level. A group was assigned to each of the four stimulation treatments. The remaining subjects received no stimulation. In terms of the total number of shocks administered by subjects in different groups, the cognitive-labeling hypothesis was strongly supported. Both complexity and loudness had an effect, but only on insulted subjects. Other implications of the results were discussed.     

When courtesy offends: effects of positive and negative behavior by the pbysically disabled on altruism and anger in normals.

The initial hypothesis was that physically disabled help-seekers will receive more aid from normal people than will help-seekers when both types of actors display positive personal qualities, whereas the reverse outcome will occur when both display negative qualities. In the first experiment a wheelchair-bound or normal confederate was either friendly and achievement oriented (positive condition) or caustic and apathetic (negative condition) while administering verbal tasks to subjects who were later asked to help the confederate. Contrary to prediction, subjects offered more help to the normal than to the disabled tester in the positive condition, and showed the reverse pattern in the negative condition. It was conjectured that subjects in the positive condition were annoyed by the disabled person's display of "normal" characteristics, whereas in the negative condition they sympathetically accepted the disabled person's inadequacies as befitting a victim of severe misfortune. A new experiment was done, which replicated the independent variables of the first study, but substituted two new dependent variables: covert anger arousal and perception of the confederate as happy-unhappy. As expected, covert anger was greater in the wheelchair-positive condition than in the normal-positive condition, and greater in the normal-negative condition than in the wheelchair-negative condition. Regardless of the confederate's physical status, subjects perceived negative behavior as a sign of unhappiness.     

Expression of interpersonal aggression by angered and nonangered persons with the type A and type B behavior patterns

Thirty-seven subjects with the Type A or the Type B behavior pattern were first either angered or not angered in a problem-solving task by a confederate who posed as another subject. In a subsequent bogus learning experiment, the Type A and Type B subjects had the opportunity to punish or reward the confederate. The effectiveness of the anger manipulation was attested to by the fact that angered subjects had reliably higher pulse rates, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure. In the learning experiment, Type A subjects who had not been angered gave the confederate reliably higher levels of punishment than did Type B subjects, but there was not a difference in the levels of punishment given by Type A and Type B subjects who had been angered. There was not a difference between Type A and Type B subjects in the levels of reward they gave the confederate. The results provided behavioral evidence for aggression in persons with the Type A behavior pattern. The fact that the difference in aggression was limited to nonangered subjects was interpreted in terms of differences in attributions of responsibility.     

The Effect of Facial Disfigurement on the Proxemic Behavior of the General Public1

The personal space afforded to a disfigured or nondisfigured confederate by 450 pedestrians in a busy street was measured. In Condition 1, the confederate had a birthmark under the right eye (permanent disfigurement). In Condition 2, this was replaced by trauma scarring and bruising (temporary disfigurement). In the third condition, the confederate was “normal” (i.e., no disfigurement). It was found that subjects stood further away from the confederate in the disfigured conditions than in the no disfigurement condition. More specifically, pedestrians arriving first in each trial stood an average distance of 100 cms from the confederate in the birthmark condition, 78 cms in the trauma condition, and 56 cms when the confederate was not disfigured. In addition, subjects chose significantly more often to stand to the left (nondisfigured) side of the confederate in the birthmark and trauma conditions than they did in the normal condition. Those subjects who chose to stand on the right (disfigured) side of the confederate, stood further away from those subjects standing on the nondisfigured side. The implications of the results are discussed in terms of the possible psychological problems associated with facial disfigurement.     

MODELING INFLUENCES ON ALCOHOLICS' RATES OF ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION

Two experiments were designed to examine modeling influences on alcoholics' alcohol consumption. Three male alcoholics were paired with confederates, posing as alcoholics. In Experiment 1, alcoholic-confederate pairs participated in a 1-hour taste-rating task, which involved rating different wines on a list of adjectives. Experiment 2 consisted of 1-hour ad lib access to wine in a naturalistic bar setting. In both experiments, confederates alternated 15-minute periods of heavy and light consumption, drinking fluids resembling wine. The amount of wine consumed by alcoholics in each period was secretly recorded and the data examined on a single subject basis. In Experiment 1, two subjects increased and decreased consumption along with their confederate. The third subject followed the confederate's pattern only after the confederate demonstrated heavy consumption. All three subjects varied consumption with the confederate during Experiment 2, performed later on the same day. These results suggest that alcoholics' alcohol consumption can be modified by the social influences of modeling. The implications of this finding for the loss of control hypothesis and alcoholism treatment maintenance were discussed.     

Effects of viewing real versus fantasy violence upon interpersonal aggression

Of 96 male undergraduates, one-third saw a violent film which they were told represented a real event, one-third saw the same film presented as a fictional event, and the remaining subjects saw no film. One-half of the subjects in each group had been attacked previously by a confederate while the others had not. Each subject was then given an opportunity to aggress against the confederate by administering shocks to him as punishment in a learning task. Results indicate that subjects who observed real violence delivered stronger shocks to the confederate than subjects who viewed fantasy violence or saw no film. Subjects who were angered and saw the real film were the most punitive toward the confederate.     

A renewed look at Miller's conflict theory of aggression displacement.

The present study is the first to examine Miller's theoretical assumptions of displaced aggression using human subjects. Subjects in the present study either served as nonangered controls, were angered by the experimenter's confederate, or were both angered by and led to fear the confederate. All subjects were then able to three targets: the confederate, a person described as a friend of the confederate, and a person having no association with the confederate. Targets received the most intense aggression from angered subjects. The difference between the aggression gradients for high-anger-low-fear and control subject. Frightened subjects gave their most intense aggression to the displaced targets. Results also support the suggestion that direct aggression is most likely if the aggressor can first extinguish some of his fear by attacking more indirect targets.     

An experimental analysis of peer social initiations on the behavior of withdrawn preschool children: Some training and generalization effects

In this study, positive social initiations by an age-peer was evaluated as an intervention for isolate preschool children in training and generalization sessions. During baseline, the confederate made few social approaches to the target subjects. The confederate greatly increased his rate of positive social initations during the first intervention, decreased social approaches during a second baseline, and increased social approaches again in a second intervention phase. Increases in confederate initiations resulted in an immediate acceleration in the frequency of subjects' positive social behavior during training sessions. Additionally, for two of the three subjects, positive social behaviors were also observed to increase during generalization sessions. The results suggest that (a) peers may be trained successfully to set the occasion for positive social behaviors by withdrawn classmates, (b) increased social responding by withdrawn children in the presence of frequent peer social initiations may also generalize beyond the training setting, and (c) the magnitude of direct and generalization effects appears to be related to the entry-level repertoire of target children.     

Behavioral similarity,confederate strategy,and sex composition of dyad as determinants of interpersonal judgments and behavior in the prisoner's dilemma game

The study was designed to test three distinct theoretical models relating player's attitudes toward a confederate in the prisoner's dilemma game: a reinforcing outcome model, a cultural norm model, and a social comparison model. A secondary concern of the study was to determine if player's sex, confederate's sex, and the confederate's strategy interactively influence player's choice behavior. Forty-eight male and forty-eight female subjects played 100 trials of the prisoner's dilemma game with a confederate who played either a 74% cooperative or 74% competitive predetermined strategy and then filled out the Interpersonal Judgment Scale rating the confederate. Behaviorally similar confederates received more positive evaluations than dissimilar confederates supporting the social comparison hypothesis. Further, the strategy of the confederate did not influence choice behavior in mixed-sex dyads, suggesting that sex roles may inhibit behaviorally based male-female interaction. The generality of previous gaming research which has dealt almost exclusively with same-sex dyads is called into question.     

Fraisse's theory of emotion and aggression.

This article shows how Fraisse's (1964) theory of emotion is a better explanation of aggression than any other theory of emotion. It discusses conceptual and methodological difficulties in existing theories of aggression and reports a study that supports a hypothesis based on Fraisse's theory. This study, which used Canadian university students equally divided by sex, supports the hypothesis that subjects would be more aggressive when faced with an unexpected annoyance than with an expected annoyance. Aggression was indexed by subjects' evaluation of the target person (confederate) as a source of annoyance.     

Consistency and modification of judgment

In an investigation of minority influence, it was predicted that a consistent preference for paintings based on nationality by a confederate would cause previously neutral subjects to increase their preference in the direction of this minority viewpoint. Further, it was predicted that ethnic origin of the confederate could be seen as a biasing factor which could diminish influence. Four naive subjects were paired with one experimental confederate who was presented as being of either Italian, German, or unknown ethnic origin. On every trial, subjects were asked to indicate their preference between two paintings, one labeled “Italian” and the other labeled “German.” Labels were actually assigned at random. The confederate consistently chose the Italian or the German paintings on every one of the 19 trials. Results indicate that Control subjects rather than being neutral, exhibited a preference for the Italian paintings. Further, the presence of a confederate who took a consistent standard, whether it was Italian or German, had the effect of making subjects significantly more pro-German (or less pro-Italian) than the control group. The findings are explained on the basis that the German position was actalternative minority position, whereas the Italian position was actually an extreme of the majority position. While the former situation leads to minority influence as predicted, the latter situation appears to have polarized subjects. An alternative in terms of a norm of fairness is suggested, also.     

Effects of a favor and liking on compliance

A laboratory experiment was conducted to examine the effects of a favor and of liking on compliance with a request for assistance from a confederate. Liking for the confederate was manipulated, and male subjects then received a soft drink from the confederate, from the experimenter, or received no favor. Compliance with the confederate's request to purchase some raffle tickets was measured, as was liking for the confederate. The results showed that the favor increased liking for the confederate and compliance with his request, but the effect of manipulated liking was weak. Detailed ratings of the confederate as well as correlational data suggested that the relationship between favors and compliance is mediated, not by liking for the favor-doer, but by normative pressure to reciprocate.     

Misattribution of arousal and attraction: Effects of salience of explanations for arousal

Based on previous research demonstrating that salience of a plausible cause increases the likelihood of causal attribution (S. E. Taylor & S. T. Fiske, in J. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 11), New York: Academic Press, 1978) it was predicted that salience of plausible causes of arousal would affect romantic attraction. Male subjects were differentially aroused by running in place. Aroused subjects were particularly likely to be attracted to an attractive female confederate if they expected to meet her (high salience of confederate) and if cues associated with the running in place were minimized (low salience of exercise). Though results are consistent with a misatribution of arousal hypothesis, it is suggested that emotion schemata are a potentially more useful explanation.