| Abstract: | Forty male undergraduates ingested either a high dose of alcohol or a placebo, and were either provided with a nonaggressive norm or not, prior to being provoked by an opponent during a competitive reaction time task. Aggression was assessed by the intensity of shocks administered by the subject to the bogus opponent. Results suggest that the provision of an explicit nonaggressive norm enabled highly intoxicated subjects to moderate their aggressive responding even in a highly competitive situation. These findings are discussed in terms of current cognitive disruption models of alcohol-related aggression which assume intoxicated persons are unable to process information concerning appropriate standards of conduct. |
