Behaviors of Swiss-Webster and C57/BL/6N sin mice in a fear/defense test battery

When confronted by an approaching threat stimulus (experimenter or laboratory rat), Swiss-Webster mice show initial flight, followed by freezing and defensive vocalization and biting, the latter only when escape is blocked. These defense patterns resemble those of the wild rat, suggesting that mice of this strain do not show the reductions in flight and defensive threat/attack that are typical of laboratory rats. C57/BL/6N Sin strain mice showed fewer avoidances to an approaching predator, as well as reduced vocalization and defensive biting, a pattern more similar to that of laboratory rats. As with rats, female mice appeared to be more defensive to a predator. They showed greater reactivity to dorsal contact and more frequent defensive biting and jump attacks than males of the same strains. These patterns of defensive behaviors suggest that, although strain differences in defense are substantial, laboratory mice are suitable for, and may offer several advantages in, the study of the genetic, endocrine, and pharmacological basis of antipredator defense. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Effects of novel odors on intermale attack behavior in mice

Offensive, defensive, and nonagonistic social behaviors of resident male mice toward unfamiliar intruders were examined during exposure to the novel odors of chocolate or sheep's wool. Both novel odors reduced lateral attacks and boxing when compared to familiar sawdust odor. Chocolate, but not sheep's wool, also reliably increased flight behavior by residents. Neither social behaviors nor self-grooming were affected by these odors. The novel odors had no effect upon, or actually decreased, the defensive responses of intruders towards residents. The equivalent effectiveness of both predator and nonpredator odors in elevating risk assessment and suppressing attack during firsttime exposure, and the decreased potency of cat odors following repeated exposure, suggests that novelty contributes to the enhanced defensiveness seen among subjects during initial exposure to predator odors. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Payoff expectancies between contingent serial moves of victim and aggressor in three hypothetical conflict situations

The expectancies of payoffs in the contingent serial interactive moves between victim and instigator, from the point of view of the victim, were measured for three hypothetical confrontations: someone pushes ahead of you in a movie line; a driver of a car takes a parking space you felt was yours; or you are the object of a rape attempt. These situations differ in urgency, and in the likelihood of success if there is resistance to the instigator. Expectations of persons were elicited as to their response to the particular aggressive act, the counter-response then expected of the instigator of the attack, and the subsequent contingent responses of each of the two persons, victim and instigator, until one or the other withdrew. The results show, in general, different payoffs at each interactive point over the ongoing serial stages in a situation, rather than an overall generalized contingency expectation, with these being different for self and the symbolized other, and also different for the three situations. Personality and sex-role measures showed minimal relation to the expectancies, and then not at the opening of the conflict, and for the instigator's rather than for the victim's expected responses.     

Relationship between attack and feeding in the insect predatory behavior of grasshopper mice

In grasshopper mice, the consequences of feeding and state of hunger affect the predatory attack to a limited extent. The purpose of this study was: (1) to establish other ways that attack and feeding were connected besides the two effects already mentioned; and (2) to determine if caching of dead prey could account for the limited connection between attack and feeding. Experiment 1 showed that attack and feeding were connected as part of a reaction chain. Experiment 2 showed that both shared a common maturational process despite the fact that each response achieved an improved efficiency in a different way. Experiment 3 showed that caching prey was not correlated with the killing of a prey and thus could not account for the limited connection between attack and feeding. It is proposed that a highly canalized attack response specifically buffered against the effects of feeding and hunger plays an important role in the mouse's carnivorous life style.     

Habituation of aggressive behavior in mice: A parametric study

The decline of aggression as a result of repeated episodes of fighting may represent a habituation phenomenon. The frequency of biting and sideways threat by male mice toward conspecific intruders declined over ten 5-min confrontations. Aggression returned to about 50% of original levels when a new intruder was introduced. Variations in length or frequency of confrontation indicated that the rate of decline of attack bites and sideways threats depended on these confrontation parameters. The condition that provided the fewest opportunities to fight provided the least decline in the frequency of attack and threat. The frequency of attack bites and sideways threats elicited by the presentation of a new intruder after repeated confrontations was greater than the frequency of attack bite and sideways threat in the last confrontation with the original intruder, when the resident and intruder were relatively inexperienced. Spontaneous recovery of attack and threat occurred but rate of recovery did not depend on confrontation parameters. The results indicate that the decrement of aggression in mice in repeated confrontations may be the result of habituation but fatigue is an important cofactor.     

The persistence of attack satiation in female golden hamsters

Female hamsters were allowed to attack a series of target hamsters until they reached a criterion of attack satiation. Following delays of 0, 24, or 48 hr they were then presented with a novel “probe” target. Attacks on the probe target were reduced to 26% of baseline at 0 delay and had returned to 71% of baseline by 48 hr. The number of attacks necessary to achieve satiation criterion increased then decreased over the three test occasions, suggesting that habituationlike processes may contribute to, but cannot wholly account for, the satiation effect.     

The pain-aggression relationship and its expression in naturalistic settings

Relationships between environmental events and aggression are briefly reviewed. Response-independent pain is a fundamental antecedent environmental cause of attack. Aggression-contingent pain decrease causes further attack strengthening, while pain increase following aggression can decrease attack and foster escape and avoidance behavior. Recent experiments that have questioned the pain-aggression relation and proposed, in the alternative, a pain-defense relationship are discussed. It is argued that this contradiction results from observational difficulties in naturalistic settings, discordance between field and laboratory terminology, substitution of behavioral taxonomy in the place of functional analysis, incomplete understanding of previous findings, and an absence of essential experimental control observations.     

Attack and defensive behaviors in the albino mouse

Attack by dominant male colony mice on intruders included chasing and lateral attack behaviors, while the corresponding intruder behaviors were flight, boxing, and checking. Both of these are similar to the attack and defensive behaviors of colony rats and intruders. However, mice did not show a significant constraint on bites to ventral areas, and the rat defensive behavior of lying on the back, which is effective because of this constraint, was rare; the corresponding “on-top” behavior of attackers was almost absent in mice. These findings strongly support the view that intraspecific attack and defensive behaviors, and target sites for bites, are interrelated factors facilitating effective but nonlethal agonistic interactions in muroid rodents.     

The behavioral bases of prolonged suppression of predatory attack in cats

The behavioral differences between rat-killing cats and non-rat killers were investigated. Killers and non-killers were found to fall at opposite ends of a continuum of predisposition to respond defensively to a variety of environmental threats. Non-killers were most defensive, displaying aggressive-defensive predatory attacks in contrast to the aggressive attacks of killers. The data support the hypothesis that suppression of killing among non-rat killers is the result of an enhanced sensitivity to external threat.     

Evaluations of Rebuttal Analogy Users: Ethical and Competence Considerations

Recent theorizing and research concerning the pragmatics of analogy in persuasion posits that it serves two communicative functions. Specifically, rebuttal analogy instrumentally functions as argument and also as a social attack device used to demean the competence or character of opponents. The study reported here empirically investigated message receivers' perceptions of rebuttal analogy users. Participants were exposed to one of four messages employing rebuttal analogy or to one of the same four messages with a nonanalogy version of the rebuttal argument. As anticipated, the findings revealed that participants perceived the communicator employing rebuttal analogy as less ethical and less competent than communicators using nonanalogy counterparts. These results are discussed and future research is proposed.