#10 2700

• Aggression and prejudice

Today's Agenda

• The lecture will cover the topics of aggression and prejudice.
• The topics covered will be: what is aggression, influences on aggression, when do we aggress, learning to behave aggressively, and reducing aggression.

Today's Learning Objectives

• After this lecture, you should be able to:
• Explain what aggression is and discuss some distinct types of aggressive behavior.
• Predict whether or not someone is likely to aggress in a given situation.
• Synthesize knowledge of different types of influences on aggressive behavior.
• Compare and contrast a number of ways in which aggression can be reduced.

What is Aggression?

• Aggressive behavior refers to any intentional behavior performed with the goal of causing another person physical or psychological pain.
• Hostile aggression's primary aim is to inflict pain, and stems from anger.
• Instrumental aggression's primary aim is something other than inflicting pain.
• Aggressive behavior can be direct or indirect/relational.
• Direct aggression involves confronting someone directly to cause harm.
• Indirect/relational aggression involves manipulating a situation to harm someone.
• Aggression can also be physical or verbal.
• Physical aggression is the use of body, objects, tools, or weapons to cause harm.
• Verbal aggression is the use of words to cause harm.
• Examples of aggression:
• Direct physical aggression: slapping, punching, stabbing.
• Indirect physical aggression: damaging property, setting traps, hiring a hitman.
• Direct verbal aggression: disrespectful criticism, derogation, threatening harm.
• Indirect verbal aggression: starting rumors.

Gender Differences in Aggression

• Men tend to be more direct and physically aggressive than women, who are more indirectly aggressive.
• Gender differences in aggression emerge early in children (3-5 years old).
• Female violent crime has increased, but violent crime is still 4x higher in males.
• Targets of physical aggression are more often men by a large margin.
• Relationship violence tends to be dyadic.
• Women are more likely to be seriously injured or killed and to report negative emotional effects.
• E.g. fear, depression

Evolutionary Psychology and Aggression

• Aggression is thought to have evolved to defend individuals and relatives against attack.
• It can directly enhance the likelihood of survival and gene propagation.
• It can also contribute to building a social reputation for toughness.
• Aggression may be genetically programmed into men to establish dominance over other males, making them more appealing as mates and to protect paternity.

Non-Human Animal Studies and Aggression

• Non-human animal studies suggest that aggression is both instinctual and learned.
• Aggression is almost universal but the environment/learning can also be important.

Culture and Aggression

• Human cultures vary widely in their degree of aggressiveness.
• Aggression is lower in collectivistic/co-operative societies.
• Honour cultures involve male honour being equated to power, toughness, and protecting property.
• Male aggression is more acceptable in honour cultures and aggressively proving "masculinity”.
• Macho subcultures in bars/clubs often involve aggression with little or no provocation, where every male is seen as competition.

Influences on Aggression

Physiology of Aggression

• Amygdala activation can play a role in aggression and seems to be involved with processes of emotions such as fear and anger.
• Serotonin may have an inhibiting effect on aggression (results are mixed).
• Testosterone appears somewhat associated with aggression, but the association is weak and complex.

Alcohol

• Research suggests that the more people drink, the more likely they are to aggress.
• Strength of the relationship varies across individuals and situational factors.
• Family/intimate partner violence and bullying during adolescence are positively related to alcohol use.
• Sexual assault perpetration and victimization are also correlated with alcohol use.
• Experiments in the lab show causal connections between alcohol consumption and aggression in response to provocation.

Pain and Discomfort

• Pain and other physical discomforts (e.g., heat, offensive odors) can lower the threshold for aggressive behavior.
• When conditions are warm, there are more riots and more violent crime.
• Road rage (e.g., honking) increases with warmer conditions.
• Aggression in sports/penalties increases with warmer conditions.

Frustration

• Frustration is experienced when we perceive that we're being prevented from obtaining a goal.
• Frustration-aggression theory posits that frustration will increase the probability of aggression.
• Frustration is particularly likely to lead to aggression when you are close to reaching your goal and when the frustration is unexpected.
• Frustration tends not to lead to aggression when its understandable, legitimate, or accidental.

Relative Deprivation

• Relative deprivation occurs when you perceive that you (or your group) have less than what you feel you deserve, you have been led to expect, or people similar to you have.
• Relative deprivation is a form of frustration.

Provocation and Reciprocation

• When provoked by the intentional aggressive behavior from someone else, we are tempted to "fight fire with fire.”
• Provocations are actions that people know or should know will make others angry with them.
• Less retaliation if provocation seems unintentional, but only when those circumstances are known at the time of the "provocation.”

Social Exclusion

• Being excluded from or rejected by a group of peers causes "numbness” and anger, reduces the capacity for empathy, and can increase aggression and these links are found in both children and adults
• Sometimes, rather than fueling aggression, social exclusion motivates us to form new social bonds.

Aggressive Cues

• An aggressive stimulus is an object typically associated with aggression whose mere presence can increase the probability of aggressive behavior occurring.

When Do We Aggress?

• Most humans have the capacity to aggress, but whether or not aggression occurs depends on a complex interplay between biological, dispositional, and situational factors.
• Finkel's (2013) I3 Model argues that aggressive behavior emerges from a combination of three classes of independent factors: instigating triggers (instigation), impelling influences (impellance), and inhibiting influences (inhibition).

The I3 Model: Instigating Triggers

• Instigating triggers refer to discrete, situational events or circumstances that induce rudimentary action tendencies toward aggression.
• Examples include perceived provocation, goal obstruction, and opportunities for personal gain.

The I3 Model: Impelling Influences

• Impelling influences refer to dispositional or situational factors that increase the strength of individuals’ tendencies to experience aggressive urges in response to an instigating trigger.
• Examples include high dispositional anger, child-abuse victimization, and just finished workout.

The I3 Model: Inhibiting Influences

• Inhibiting influences refer to dispositional or situational factors that increase the strength of individuals’ tendencies to override aggressive urges rather than act upon those urges.
• Examples include high dispositional self-control, strong relationship commitment, and sobriety

The I3 Model: The Perfect Storm

• Violence is likely to occur under conditions of strong instigation, strong impellance, and weak inhibition.

Learning to Behave Aggressively

Imitation

• According to social learning theory, we learn social behavior, including aggression, by observing others and imitating them, e.g. the "Bobo" doll studies.
• Research in the area of media aggression is both conceptually and methodologically flawed.

Pornography

• Most pornography (60-70%) involves no acts of aggression at all.
• When aggression is depicted, it is generally consensual aggression (e.g., spanking).
• However, the depiction of non-consensual aggression is found in 3-20% of videos, depending on the study.
• Most porn users do not seek out aggressive porn (70%-80%).
• Female porn users are more likely to use aggressive porn than male users.
• Aggressive content in porn is less popular than non-aggressive content.
• Aggression in porn has not been increasing over the years (at least not the last 20 years).
• Using porn does not involve a general tendency to increase the use of aggressive porn over time.
• Some argue that non-aggressive pornography contributes to the devaluation of women.

Pornography Research

• Studies show that people who use porn have more positive attitudes toward gender equality than those that do not.
• Research indicates exposure to both violent and non-violent porn increases aggressive behavior towards women in a lab setting.
• The paradigm tests arousal misattribution and low external validity.
• Exposure to nudity without sexual behavior decreases aggressive behavior.

Reducing Aggression

Punishment

• Lab experiments suggest that punishment deters aggressive behavior if it is prompt, certain, and unavoidable.
• In real life, these conditions are often not met, and severe punishment does NOT seem to deter violent crime.
• Consistency and certainty in punishment is more effective than severity for reducing violent behavior.

Catharsis

• People often believe that "blowing off steam" relieves built-up aggressive energy and reduces the likelihood of further aggression.
• Many studies do not support the catharsis notion.
• After venting anger, people may behave more aggressively.
• Watching competitive or aggressive games can increase aggression.

More Effective Strategies for Reducing Aggression

• Strategies that can be used to deal with anger or aggressive impulses:
• Relaxation techniques to dissipate arousal.
• Communication and problem-solving.
• Non-judgmental statements of your perspective and feelings.
• Genuine apologizing (or other form of amends-making).
• Modeling non-aggressive behavior.
• Building empathy and perspective-taking.
• Bolstering self-control.

Wrap-Up

• Aggression is a behavior that aims to hurt people, and its expression depends on instigation, impellance, and inhibition.
• Aggressive behavior has several distinct forms.
• There are many factors that can influence aggression.
• Some intuitive methods for reducing aggression do not work well, and even backfire.