| Abstract: | Low hostility-guilt subjects were either annoyed or not annoyed by an experimental confederate and given the opportunity to (a) displace aggression against a second confederate in a memory task, (b) go through a similar task but not aggress, or (c) sit quietly for a comparable period of time. All subjects were subsequently allowed to aggress against their annoyer in a “creativity” task. While displacement following annoyance did not reduce physiological arousal, it did reduce the amount of subsequent aggression against the annoyer. Conversely, the expression of aggression in subjects who were not annoyed resulted in an increase in physiological arousal, but not in subsequent aggression. No significant relationships were found between physiological arousal and subsequent aggression. |
