aggression

aggression

any action with the intent to harm

hostile aggression

motivated by anger, hostility, or genuinely wanting to hurt the other

instrumental aggression

motivated by something other than hostility, like wanting to get attention, acquire resources, or advance a cause

situational determinants of agression

hot weather, media/video games, weapon presence, social rejection, income inequality

hot weather

• more violent crime in regions with hotter climates

• violent crime reaches a maximum during summer months

• heat waves are associated with increase violent, but not nonviolent, crime rates

Why?

• heat increases physiological arousal

• when people feel hot, this experience primes the emotion of anger, though we misattribute the source of the arousal

media violence

participants shown aggressive film clips in the lab behaved more aggressively afterwards than those shown non-aggressive clips

• in the lab, people are primed to become more violent when exposed to violent movies and violent pornography

• particularly when they identify with a perpetrator or the violence is portrayed against “bad” people

• studies capture short-term effects on aggression

• as viewership of violent movies rose, violent crimes dropped that day

violent video games

• increases aggressive behavior

• reduces prosocial behavior

• increases aggressive thoughts

• increases aggressive emotions

• increases blood pressure

social rejection

activates a threat defense system (arousal, cortisol, distress, defensive aggressive tendencies)

• activates the same brain regions as physical pain

income inequality

• positive correlation between income inequality and homicide rates

Why?

• social rejection: people at the bottom feel left out (rejected)

• lack of cohesion: inequality undermines the cohesiveness of a society, creates an us vs them mentality, more violence in less cohesive neighborhoods

• violent competition: income inequality may pressure males into fiercer competition for access to economic resources and mates

anger theory

the effects of anger influence the way we construe certain things, thus, situational determinants will produce aggression only when angry

dehumanization

tendency to attribute nonhuman characteristics to outgroup members

• human nature: what distinguishes us from inanimate objects (emotions, pain)

• human uniqueness: what distinguishes us from other non-human species (civility, refinement, complex reasoning)

catharsis

the release of a strong emotion, such as anger, to purge oneself of the impulse to behave inappropriately

• no evidence this works for anger, rather it can increase it

culture of honor

a culture that is defined by its members’ strong concern about their own and others’ reputations

• leads to hypersensitivity to insults and a willingness to use violence to avenge any perceived wrong or insult

precarious manhood hypothesis

a union of cultural and evolutionary perspectives

• competition, status contests, violence, economic conditions, make male identities elusive and tenuous

• perceived threat to gender identity —> take public action to prove masculinity

reactive devaluation

when we attach less value to an offer in a negotiations, simply because it was offered by an opponent