Retaliatory motivation enhances attributions of hostility when people process ambiguous social stimuli

We hypothesized that provocation and readiness to aggress (Retaliatory Motivation) would increase the tendency to construe the ambiguous actions of others as reflecting hostile intent. Male undergraduates were either verbally provoked or not provoked by a male experimenter and half were led to believe that they would be allowed to retaliate anonymously against the provoker in the form of a potentially damaging written evaluation. Participants then rated the hostility and aggressive intent of the characters in brief ambiguous scenarios of interpersonal conflict. According to prediction, men who were provoked and anticipated retaliation against their provoker rated the scenarios as containing hostility and aggression to a significantly greater extent than did non‐provoked or merely provoked participants. Results are discussed within a motivation‐based affective relevance model of perception. Aggr. Behav. 29:155–172, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

The effects of sexual and/or aggressive film exposure on helping, hostility, and attitudes about the sexes

After viewing an aggressive, sexually aggressive, erotic heterosexual, or control film, 129 females and 135 males expressed their willingness to help and hostility toward the male or female experimenter. Males extended the least help to the experimenter following the aggressive film and expressed more positive affect than females. Erotophilic males expressed slightly less hostility toward a female than a male experimenter. Erotophiles expressed more positive attitudes toward women and toward men after viewing either the rape film shown by a male experimenter or the erotic film shown by a female experimenter, compared to erotophobes. Among erotophobes, these two experimental conditions generally produced the most negative effects on general attitudes about the sexes. Affective responses to sex variations in dominant status and to aggressivity were employed to provide explanations for these results.     

Effect of timing of information about mitigating circumstances on emotional responses to provocation and retaliatory behavior

To determine whether the reduction of retaliatory behavior by knowledge of mitigating circumstances is due to less motivation to retaliate or to an inhibition of motivated retaliation, subjects were provoked by a rude experimenter and informed of mitigating conditions (a) before provocation, (b) after provocation, or (c) not at all. Physiological data revealed that prior knowledge of mitigation prevented pronounced excitatory responses to prococation. In contrast, when mitigating conditions were not known, excitatory responses to provocation were intense. In addition, when mitigating information was supplied after provocation, excitatory responses decayed more rapidly than when no such information was supplied. Retaliatory behavior, as measured in complaints about the rude experimenter, was substantially lower in the condition in which mitigation preceded provocation than in the other two conditions. The retaliatory behavior of subjects who were informed of mitigation after being provoked did not differ significantly from that of subjects who were not informed of mitigation. The findings were interpreted as incompatible with the assumption that under mitigating conditions retaliation is motivated but inhibited and as generally supportive of the proposal that mitigation attenuates the response to provocation. In order to explain the failure of the reception of mitigating information after provocation to reduce retaliatory behavior in spite of the observed facilitation of excitatory decay, it was suggested that when subjects were experiencing high levels of anger, they formed a behavioral disposition to retaliate, which outlasted the state of elevated arousal.     

Mediators between frustration and aggression in a field experiment

To assess some of the mediators between a frustrating incident and subsequent aggressive behavior in a field situation, 320 male and female subjects were assigned to one of 32 experimental conditions in a 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design. Either a male or female experimenter, saying “Excuse me” or not, dressed in high or low status clothing, cut in line in front of the subject, who was standing near the front or back of the line. Verbal and nonverbal aggressiveness were coded and summed to measure total aggression. Subjects near the front of the line or interacting with a low status experimenter were more aggressive than those at the back of the line or seeing a high status experimenter. Less aggression was directed against the female experimenter or one who said “Excuse me,” and there was a strong tendency for subjects to be more aggressive to a same-sex experimenter. It was suggested that further research on instigators to aggression be carried out in such field situations.     

Gender role masculinity and angry aggression in women

The extent to which gender role masculinity is related to degree of women's angry retaliation was investigated. The study also examined whether the relationship between gender role masculinity and anger is mediated by gender role differences in reactivity to provocation, or to differences in the labeling of anger. It was expected that the influence of gender role masculinity on affect and aggression would be greatest when the nature of the affective arousal is ambiguous. Sixty undergraduate women (predominantly upper middle class and white) were given a placebo pill. They were either given ambiguous information about the pill's effects, or were told it was a vitamin or a stimulant. They then were either provoked or not provoked, and finally received an opportunity to retaliate. The participants had been divided by median split into high- and low-masculinity groups based on their scores on Spence and Helmreich's (1978) Personal Attributes Questionnaire. As expected, when provoked, high-masculinity subjects were more aggressive than low-masculinity subjects but only in the ambiguous drug information condition. Although they reported more arousal-related sensations, they did not rate themselves higher in anger. The results are discussed in terms of gender role influences on the experience of anger and the expression of aggression.     

Excitation and hedonic valence in the effect of erotica on motivated Intermale aggression

The excitatory potential (low, high), the hedonic valence (negative, positive), and the type of content (erotic, non-erotic) of visual stimuli were varied in a factorial design. Male subjects were provoked by a same-sex peer, exposed to communication or, in a no-exposure control, made to wait for a period of time equal to that of communication exposure, and then provided with an opportunity to retaliate against their annoyer. High excitatory potential and negative hedonic valence were found to combine additively in a facilitative effect on retaliatory aggression. No appreciable differences were found in the effect of excitationally and hedonically matched erotica and non-erotica. Exposure to either arousing and displeasing erotica or non-erotica produced levels of aggression significantly above the level associated with the no-exposure control. Exposure to comparatively non-arousing and pleasing erotica or non-erotica failed to reduce aggression, however. The findings were considered to support a model that projects the effect of erotica on retaliatory aggression as a joint function of their excitatory potential and their hedonic valence.     

Social Costs of Smoking: Effects of Tobacco Smoke on Hostile Behavior1

Male and female undergraduates interacted with a same-sex experimenter and a same-sex assistant of the experimenter. Either the experimenter or the assistant smoked. Subjects were provoked or not provoked by the experimenter and then smoked. Subjects were provoked or not provided by the experimenter and then provided with an opportunity to treat him or her in a hostile manner. Additionally, subjects were classified as smokers or nonsmokers and as supporting or opposing smoking in public places. Tobacco smoke was found to facilitate hostile behavior whether or not subjects were independently annoyed and whether or not it originated from the annoyer or a bystander. No sex differences were observed in this effect. Also, no appreciable difference was observed in the hostile behavior of smokers and nonsmokers. Persons opposed to public smoking reacted more strongly to the provocation than persons supportive of public smoking, but this effect was independent of the presence or absence of smoke.     

Relationship between affect and memory: motivation-based selective generation.

Two experiments examined the influence of anger and retaliatory motivation on memory for negative material. In the 1st study, 60 male undergraduates memorized words with positive, negative, and neutral semantic connotations. It was found that angered men who expected to retaliate against their provocateur recalled more negative words than other words, and more than Ss in all other affect and evaluation conditions. Angered men in the nonretaliation condition displayed no differences in negative word recall. The 2nd experiment investigated memory for details of a provoking experience. Angered men who expected to retaliate more accurately recalled the details of their provocation, but whether they were given the retaliation information before or after provocation had no bearing on memory for these details. Results are discussed in terms of a motivation-based selective generation hypothesis for the relationship between anger and memory.     

Delayed effects of practiced versus unpracticed responses after observation of movie violence

University men participating in an ostensible study of “impression formation” first received either an insulting or neutral evaluation of themselves from their supposed partner and then watched either a prize fight or an exciting but nonaggressive scene. After this, they either had an opportunity to evaluate their partner right away or they had to wait an hour before evaluating him. On scoring the subjects' written statements about the partner (to be seen by him and the experimenter), it was found that (1) for those given the immediate opportunity to be aggressive, the violent movie increased the strength of the angered subjects' initial attack on their partner over that displayed by the similarly insulted men shown the nonaggressive film; (2) if the angry subjects had to wait an hour before evaluating their partner, there was no difference between the aggressive and nonaggressive movie groups; (3) the aggression-heightening effect of the violent scene did carry over the intervening hour, however, if the insulted men had been given the earlier opportunity to evaluate their partner. It is suggested that the performance of an aggressive response soon after seeing an aggressive film increases the persistence of the aggressive reactions over time.     

Attribution of apparent arousal and proficiency of recovery from sympathetic activation affecting excitation transfer to aggressive behavior

In a pretest, subjects' proficiency to recover from sympathetic arousal induced by strenuous exercise was assessed. The results were used to determine conditions of high, intermediate, and low recovery proficiency (fitness). After an assessment of subjects' unprovoked aggressiveness, subjects were aggressively provoked. Within proficiency blocks, they were then given one of two treatments, (a) sitting followed by exercising (no decay) or (b) exercising followed by sitting (partial decay), and were there-after provided with an opportunity to retaliate against their tormentor. Under conditions of no decay, in which the high levels of arousal experienced were attributable to exertion, the provocation treatment failed to increase aggressiveness significantly, and there were no differences in aggressiveness in the various proficiency conditions in spite of differentiations in the magnitude of prevailing excitatory residues. Under partial decay, in the absence of cues linking arousal to exertion, the magnitude of residual arousal did affect aggressive behavior: In the conditions of intermediate and low recovery proficiency, aggressiveness increased significantly with provocation and was more pronounced than in the condition of high proficiency (best fitness); in the condition of low proficiency (least fitness) aggressiveness was higher than in the condition of intermediate proficiency, but not reliably so.     

Equity and derogation of those against whom we have aggressed

Casting the classic provocation-retaliation paradigm in an equity framework, we hypothesized that persons realizing their retribution was excessive would derogate their victim, but only when they did not anticipate an opportunity to compensate her. After retaliating against a peer who had harshly evaluated their essays, 40 female undergraduates were informed that either a serious or mild misfortune had recently been suffered by their partner, and were led to believe that at the outset of the experiment they had carelessly overlooked this “mitigating” information. Half the participants anticipated a later opportunity to do a favor for the other woman. Regardless of the severity of the mitigating information the women were more negative in their evaluation of the partner when they did not anticipate a subsequent opportunity to do the partner a favor. The results are discussed in terms of equity restoration in reactions to having aggressed. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Erotic stimuli and aggression: facilitation or inhibition.

The present experiment attempted to reconcile previous results on the relationship of erotic stimuli and aggression. Subjects were either insulted or not insulted prior or subsequent to observing erotic stimuli of varying levels of arousal inducements. It was found, in support of prior research, that mildly erotic stimuli had an inhibiting effect on aggression when viewed subsequent to anger arousal, whereas highly erotic stimuli tended to maintain aggression at a level similar to nonerotic exposure. Prior viewing of erotic stimuli, however, had a facilitative effect on aggressive behavior. It was proposed that erotic stimuli have two components (arousal and attentional shift) that interact with anger arousal to either inhibit or facilitate aggressive behavior. The article considers the implications of this two-component system for future research on erotic and aggressive stimuli.     

Attribution and aggression: The misattribution of anger

An experiment was designed to test the effect of misattribution of anger on subsequent aggression. Subjects were induced to take a placebo with half of the subjects led to expect arousal symptoms and the other half led to expect relaxation. Crosscutting the pill manipulation, half of the subjects were provoked by a confederate and half were not. All subjects were then given an opportunity to aggress against the confederate. As predicted, relaxation pill-provoked subjects were significantly more aggressive than subjects in the other conditions (p < .025), with arousal pill-provoked subjects no more aggressive than no provocation controls.     

Hostility as a function of the opportunity to counteraggress.

Half of the subjects, college students, were insulted by the experimenter while half were not. Within each of these conditions, half of the subjects were led to believe they would have an opportunity to administer electric shock to the experimenter, while the other half were not. A measure of hostility toward the experimenter was taken before there was any actual opportunity to shock him. As predicted from reactance theory, it was found that the mere opportunity to shock the experimenter reduced hostility that was produced by his insulting behavior. Alternative interpretations and implications were discussed.     

Some personality factors in reaction to aggressive stimuli

A word association test which included aggressive stimuli (weapon names) was given to college students. Those whose responses were relatively high or low in emotionality were asked to participate in a “study of stress reactions to electric shock” When the subject arrived at the laboratory, he and a partner were given tasks to perform The partner, a confederate of the experimenter, gave the subject an unfairly high number of shocks in judging the subject's performance The subject then judged the partner's work, using shock Half the subjects were in the apparently accidental presence of guns when given the chance to retaliate Among low-emotionality subjects, the presence of guns increased the number of shocks given the partner, as Berkowitz and LePage found High-emotionality subjects tended to give the partner longer shocks than low subjects, whether guns were present or not. In contrast to the low subjects, when guns were present, highs tended to give shocks of shorter duration and to report lowered anger, as if the aggressive stimuli had dampened the intensity of their reaction. The results as a whole indicate that the perceptual set for aggressive stimuli and the presence of such stimuli have an interactive effect on aggressive tendencies     

Mood Adjustment to Social Situations Through Mass Media Use: How Men Ruminate and Women Dissipate Angry Moods

Mood adjustment goals served to explain gender differences regarding media preferences. Before reacting to antagonism, females are likely to prevent aggression by dissolving aversive states through media consumption, whereas males could preserve aggression by choosing negative content. In a computerized procedure, participants (N = 86) were provoked by supervisor feedback to instigate angry moods. Half of the sample was led to anticipate a retaliation opportunity. In a purportedly separate study, participants were free to choose from online news while software unobtrusively logged their selective news exposure. The articles had been classified as positive or negative news in a pretest. When anticipating a retaliation opportunity, females spent more time reading positive news to dissipate their anger. Males expecting a retaliation opportunity spent more time on negative news to sustain their anger. Males’ generally lower news consumption, especially when anticipating a chance to retaliate, indicated anger rumination through news avoidance altogether.     

The effects of alcohol and the salience of aggressive cues on triggered displaced aggression

Alcohol increases the aggression-augmenting effects of provocation. Theories of alcohol and aggression suggest that impaired cognitive processing induced by acute intoxication leads individuals to process aggression-inducing social cues differently depending on whether they are high or low in salience. We examined the effects of intoxication and aggressive cue salience within the triggered displaced aggression paradigm. An ethnically diverse sample of 74 primarily young adult participants (40 men and 34 women; M=23.28, SD=3.14 years) were recruited from the university community and surrounding area. All participants were provoked by an experimenter, randomly assigned to a 2 (alcohol condition: alcohol vs. placebo) x 2 (trigger salience: high vs. low salience) between-subjects design, and then given the opportunity to aggress against the undeserving triggering agent. As expected, intoxication combined with a salient triggering cue elicited the most displaced aggression among all conditions. These results provide the first evidence that the effect of alcohol on triggered displaced aggression is moderated by the salience of the triggering event.     

Determinants of confirming and disconfirming responses to negative social labels

Two experiments explored the question of when people will respond to negative labels by confirming them and when they will respond by disconfirming them. In a field experiment subjects were accused of not taking advantage of the opportunities available in a nearby city, and in a laboratory experiment they were accused of having low self-confidence. After these accusations, subjects were given an opportunity to behave in ways that varied in the degree to which they were consistent with the experimenter's labels. For some subjects the experimenter's accusations included mention of the fact that the negative label also applied to many other members of their group, while for other subjects this group factor was not mentioned. The reference to the group either increased or decreased subjects' label-confirming behavior, depeding on whether the subject had provided the experimenter with evidence consistent with the label before the accusations were made. When the experimenter had this evidence, subjects subsequently confirmed the label more if the fact that the negative label applied to many group members was mentioned than if it was not mentioned. When the experimenter accused the subject without having any evidence, subjects disconfirmed the label more if the group was mentioned than if it was not.     

Intergroup competition and its effect on intragroup and intergroup relations

Seventy-two male subjects from lower technical schools were divided into groups of three and assigned to three conditions in which they expected to work together in competition with another group, to work together but independently of the other group, or did not anticipate to work together at all. Subjects who anticipated working together showed a more favorable attitude toward their group and its members than subjects who did not. Moreover, actual social interaction increased in-group attractiveness. Intergroup competition led to a more differentiated leadership structure and a greater consensus about the distribution of influence in the group. Contrary to our predictions, intergroup competition produced no greater in-group solidarity, nor any over-evaluation of the group's product. Low influence persons felt comparatively more positive about their group even before they actually had the opportunity to work together. An attempt was made to relate this finding to the ordinal position of the low status figure, his affiliative tendencies under stress, and his greater social dependence.