The effects of ambient temperature and insult on the motivation to retaliate or escape

In order to investigate the impact of high ambient temperature on the motivation of angered persons, 48 men were either insulted or not insulted under normal or excessively hot conditions. The men received ratings from a partner that conveyed a negative or neutral personality evaluation, ostensibly as part of an impression-formation task. During this time, the participants were exposed to normal or excessively hot temperatures in an experimental room while their partners were in a normal temperature room. The subjects were subsequently given the opportunity to choose between two tasks for the next part of the study. One task, described as tedious, permitted their leaving the situation earlier than did the other task, described as involving administration of white noise to their partner. The results revealed that the insulted relative to noninsulted men more often chose to participate in a potentially aggressive interaction in the normal conditions whereas insulted relative to noninsulted men chose more often to participate in a nonaggressive task in the hot conditions. The design of the study precluded a shared stress interpretation of the data. Supplementary data were interpreted as supporting a negative affect rather than an attributional interpretation of the results.