Social Psychology Elliot Aronson University of California Santa

Social Psychology Elliot Aronson University of California, Santa Cruz Timothy D. Wilson University of Virginia Robin M. Akert Wellesley College slides by Travis Langley 6 th edition

Chapter 12 Aggression: Why Do We Hurt Other People? Can We Prevent It? “Nothing is more costly, nothing is more sterile, than revenge. ” -- Winston Churchill

What Is Aggression? Aggression Intentional behavior aimed at doing harm or causing pain to another person. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

What Is Aggression? Instrumental Aggression as a means to some goal other than causing pain. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

What Is Aggression? Hostile Aggression stemming from feelings of anger and aimed at inflicting pain. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Is Aggression Inborn or Learned? For centuries, scientists, philosophers, and other serious thinkers have been arguing about the human capacity for aggression. • Some are convinced that aggression is an inborn, instinctive human trait. • Others are just as certain that aggressive behavior must be learned.

Is Aggression Inborn or Learned? Freud elaborated on the more pessimistic view that brutish traits are part of human nature. He theorized that humans are born with an instinct toward life, which he called Eros, and an equally powerful instinct toward death, which he called Thanatos. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Is Aggression Instinctual? Situational? Optional? The Evolutionary Argument Males are theorized to aggress for two reasons: 1. Males behave aggressively to establish dominance over other males. The idea here is that the female will choose the male who is most likely to provide the best genes and the greatest protection and resources for their offspring. 2. Males aggress "jealously" in order to ensure that their mate(s) are not copulating with others. This ensures their paternity. Research supporting the evolutionary perspective is provocative but inconclusive because it is impossible to conduct a definitive experiment. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Is Aggression Instinctual? Situational? Optional? Aggression among the lower animals: Most people assume that cats will instinctively stalk and kill rats. Kuo (1961) attempted to demonstrate that this was a myth. He performed a simple little experiment: He raised a kitten in the same cage with a rat. Not only did the cat refrain from attacking the rat, but the two became close companions. Moreover, when given the opportunity, the cat refused either to chase or to kill other rats; thus the benign behavior was not confined to this one buddy but generalized to rats the cat had never met. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Is Aggression Instinctual? Situational? Optional? Aggression among the lower animals: Chimpanzees are the only nonhuman species in which groups of male members hunt and kill other members of their own kind. Bonobos, on the other hand, are known as the “make love, not war” ape. Prior to engaging in activities that could otherwise lead to conflict, bonobos engage in sex, This sexual activity functions to diffuse potential conflict. The bonobo are a rare exception, however. The near universality of aggression strongly suggests that aggressiveness has evolved and has been maintained because it has survival value. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Aggression and Culture Whether or not aggressive action is actually expressed depends on a complex interplay between: – Innate tendencies, – Various learned inhibitory responses, and – The precise nature of the social situation.

Aggression and Culture Cross-cultural studies have found that human cultures vary widely in their degree of aggressiveness. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

CHANGES IN AGGRESSION ACROSS TIME IN A GIVEN CULTURE, CHANGING SOCIAL CONDITIONS FREQUENTLY LEAD TO STRIKING CHANGES IN AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR. FOR EXAMPLE, AGGRESSIVENESS FROM PREVIOUSLY PEACEFUL PEOPLE CAN COME ABOUT WHEN A SOCIAL CHANGE PRODUCES INCREASES IN COMPETITION.

REGIONALISM AND AGGRESSION ARGUMENT-RELATED HOMICIDE RATES FOR WHITE SOUTHERN MALES ARE SUBSTANTIALLY HIGHER THAN THOSE FOR WHITE NORTHERN MALES, ESPECIALLY IN RURAL AREAS. SOUTHERNERS ARE MORE INCLINED TO ENDORSE VIOLENCE FOR PROTECTION AND IN RESPONSE TO INSULTS. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Neural and Chemical Influences on Aggressive behaviors in human beings, as well as in the lower animals, are associated with an area in the core of the brain called the amygdale. • When the amygdale is stimulated, docile organisms become violent. • Similarly, when neural activity in that area is blocked, violent organisms become docile. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Neural and Chemical Influences on Aggression Certain chemicals have been shown to influence aggression. Serotonin, a chemical substance that occurs naturally in the midbrain, seems to inhibit impulsive aggression. In animals, when the flow of serotonin is disrupted, increases in aggressive behavior frequently follow. Violent criminals have particularly low levels of naturally produced serotonin. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Neural and Chemical Influences on Aggression Too little serotonin can lead to increases in aggression, but so can too much testosterone, a male sex hormone. 1. 2. 3. 4. Laboratory animals injected with testosterone became more aggressive. Naturally occurring testosterone levels are significantly higher among violent criminals than nonviolent criminals. Juvenile delinquents have higher levels. More aggressive fraternities’ members have more. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Gender and Aggression Eleanor Maccoby and Carol Jacklin (1974) demonstrated that boys appear to be more aggressive than girls. Among boys, there was far more “nonplayful” pushing, shoving, and hitting than among girls.

Gender and Aggression But research on gender differences is more complicated than it might seem on the surface. Although young boys tend to be more overtly aggressive than young girls (in the sense that they lash out directly at the target person), girls tend to express their aggressive feelings more covertly: – Gossiping, – Engaging in more backbiting, and – Spreading false rumors about the target person. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

DOES CULTURE MAKE A DIFFERENCE? SEX DIFFERENCES IN AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIORS TEND TO HOLD UP ACROSS CULTURES. IN ONE STUDY, TEENAGERS FROM ELEVEN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, MOSTLY IN EUROPE AND ASIA, READ STORIES INVOLVING CONFLICT AMONG PEOPLE AND WERE ASKED TO WRITE THEIR OWN ENDINGS. IN EVERY ONE OF THE COUNTRIES, YOUNG MEN SHOWED A GREATER TENDENCY TOWARD VIOLENT SOLUTIONS TO CONFLICT THAN YOUNG WOMEN DID.

DOES CULTURE MAKE A DIFFERENCE? Although within a given culture, men showed consistently higher levels of aggression than women, culture also played a major role. For example, women from Australia and New Zealand showed greater evidence of aggressiveness than men from Sweden and Korea did.

VIOLENCE AMONG INTIMATE PARTNERS • SOME 22% OF ALL VIOLENT CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN IN A TYPICAL YEAR WERE COMMITTED BY THEIR INTIMATE MALE PARTNERS. • FOR MEN, THE FIGURE IS 3%. • HUSBANDS ARE FAR MORE LIKELY TO MURDER THEIR WIVES THAN VICE VERSA.

Alcohol and Aggression “Oh that wasn’t me talking, it was the alcohol talking. ” Image copyright The New Yorker.

Alcohol and Aggression Why can alcohol increase aggressive behavior? 1. 2. 3. Alcohol often serves as a disinhibitor—it reduces our social inhibitions, making us less cautious than we usually are. It appears to disrupt the way we usually process information. This means that intoxicated people often respond to the earliest and most obvious aspects of a social situation and tend to miss the subtleties. When individuals ingest enough alcohol to make them legally drunk, they tend to respond more violently to provocations than those who have ingested little or no alcohol. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Pain, Discomfort, and Aggression If an animal is in pain and cannot flee the scene, it will almost invariably attack; this is true of rats, mice, hamsters, foxes, monkeys, crayfish, snakes, raccoons, alligators, and a host of other creatures. In those circumstances, animals will attack members of their own species, members of different species, or anything else in sight, including stuffed dolls and tennis balls. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Pain, Discomfort, and Aggression Humans can act more aggressively when experiencing: – Pain – Heat – Humidity – Air pollution – Offensive odors Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Social Situations and Aggression can also be caused by unpleasant social situations. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Social Situations and Aggression Frustration-Aggression Theory The idea that frustration—the perception that you are being prevented from attaining a goal—increases the probability of an aggressive response. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Social Situations and Aggression Frustration and Aggression Barker, Dembo, & Lewin (1941): • Children who played with toys immediately played joyfully. • Children frustrated by waiting were extremely destructive: Many smashed the toys, threw them against the wall, stepped on them, and so forth. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Social Situations and Aggression Frustration and Aggression Several things can increase frustration and, accordingly, will increase the probability that some form of aggression will occur: – Delay – Goal proximity – Unexpectedness of the frustration Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Social Situations and Aggression Frustration and Aggression What circumstances can turn frustration to aggression? – The size and strength of the person responsible for your frustration. – That person’s ability to retaliate. – Proximity of the person. If the frustration is understandable, legitimate, and unintentional, the tendency to aggress will be reduced.

Being Provoked and Reciprocating Aggression frequently stems from the need to reciprocate after being provoked by aggressive behavior from another person. But even when provoked, people do not always reciprocate. When convinced the provocation was unintentional, most of us will not reciprocate. If there are mitigating circumstances, counter-aggression will not occur. But to curtail an aggressive response, these mitigating circumstances must be known at the time of the provocation.

Aggressive Objects as Cues Aggressive Stimulus An object that is associated with aggressive responses and whose mere presence can increase the probability of aggression.

Imitation and Aggression Children frequently learn to solve conflicts aggressively by imitating adults and their peers, especially when they see that the aggression is rewarded. Source of images: www. clipart. com

Imitation and Aggression The people children imitate the most, of course, are their parents. And if the parents were abused as children, this can set a chain of abuse in motion. Indeed, a large percentage of physically abusive parents were themselves abused by their own parents when they were kids.

Imitation and Aggression Social Learning Theory The idea that we learn social behavior (e. g. , aggression) by observing others and imitating them.

In a classic series of experiments, Albert Bandura and his associates demonstrated the power of social learning.

Imitation and Aggression • Bandura’s basic procedure was to have an adult knock around a plastic, air-filled “Bobo” doll (the kind that bounces back after it’s been knocked down). • The kids were then allowed to play with the doll. • In these experiments, the children imitated the aggressive models and treated the doll in an abusive way. • Children in a control condition, who did not see the aggressive adult in action, almost never unleashed any aggression against the hapless doll.

Violence in the Media: TV, Movies, and Video Games

EFFECTS ON CHILDREN 1. BY THE TIME THE AVERAGE AMERICAN CHILD FINISHES ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, HE OR SHE WOULD HAVE SEEN 8, 000 MURDERS AND MORE THAN 100, 000 OTHER ACTS OF VIOLENCE. 2. 58% OF ALL TV PROGRAMS CONTAIN VIOLENCE —AND OF THOSE, 78% CONTAIN NOT A SHRED OF REMORSE, CRITICISM, OR PENALTY FOR THAT VIOLENCE. 3. OME 40% OF THE VIOLENT INCIDENTS SEEN ON TV DURING A PARTICULAR YEAR WERE INITIATED BY CHARACTERS PORTRAYED AS HEROES OR OTHER ATTRACTIVE ROLE MODELS FOR CHILDREN. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

EFFECTS ON CHILDREN The more TV violence individuals watch as children, the more violence they exhibit later as teens and young adults. Watching a violent film has the effect of increasing the number of aggressive acts committed during a game—primarily by the youngsters who already rated as highly aggressive by their teachers. Even children who are not inclined toward aggression will become more aggressive if exposed to a steady diet of violent films over a long period. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

EFFECTS ON CHILDREN Priming by TV has a tendency to increase the probability of an aggressive response when children subsequently are frustrated or hurt, exposing children to an endless stream of violence in films and on TV might have a similar tendency to prime an aggressive response. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

EFFECTS ON CHILDREN Playing violent video games seems to have the same kind of impact on children that watching TV violence does. Violent video game playing positively correlates with aggressive behavior and delinquency in children. The relationship was found to be stronger for children who had been more prone to violence beforehand. The relationship is more than correlational. Exposing a random sample of children to a graphically violent video game had a direct and immediate impact on their aggressive thoughts and behavior. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

What About Adults? • The amount of time spent watching television during adolescence and early adulthood correlates positively with likelihood of subsequent violent acts against others. • This association was significant regardless of parental education, family income, and neighborhood violence.

What About Adults? • Daily homicide rates in the United States have almost always increased during the week following a heavyweight boxing match. • Moreover, the more publicity surrounding the fight, the greater the subsequent increase in homicides. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

What About Adults? • Still more striking, the race of prizefight • Daily homicide rates in the United States losers was related to the race of victims of have almost always increased during the murders after the fights: After white week following a heavyweight boxing boxers lost fights, there was a match. corresponding increase in murders of • white Moreover, the not more surrounding men but of publicity black men. the fight, the greater the subsequent • After black boxers lost fights, there was a increase in homicides. corresponding increase in murders of black men but not of white men. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

THE NUMBING EFFECT OF TV VIOLENCE REPEATED EXPOSURE TO DIFFICULT OR UNPLEASANT EVENTS TENDS TO HAVE A NUMBING EFFECT ON OUR SENSITIVITY TO THOSE EVENTS, AS INDICATED BY REDUCTIONS IN: • EMOTIONAL RESPONSE, • PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSE, AND • PERCEPTION OF BRUTALITY.

HOW DOES MEDIA VIOLENCE AFFECT OUR VIEW OF THE WORLD? • ADOLESCENTS AND ADULTS WHO WATCH MORE THAN 4 HOURS PER DAY ARE MORE LIKELY TO HAVE AN EXAGGERATED VIEW OF THE DEGREE OF VIOLENCE TAKING PLACE OUTSIDE THEIR OWN HOME. • HEAVY TV VIEWERS HAVE A MUCH GREATER FEAR OF BEING PERSONALLY ASSAULTED. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

WHY DOES MEDIA VIOLENCE AFFECT VIEWERS’ AGGRESSION? 1. “If they can do it, so can I. ” 2. “Oh, so that’s how you do it!” 3. “Those feelings I am having must be real anger rather than simply a stressful day. ” 4. “Ho-hum, another brutal beating; what’s on the other channel? ” 5. “I had better get him before he gets me!”

Does Violence Sell? • People who saw a nonviolent, non-sexual show were able to recall brands advertised during commercials better than the people who saw a violent show or a sexually explicit show. • This was true both immediately after viewing and twenty-four hours after viewing and was true for both men and women of all ages. • Violence and sex seem to impair viewers’ memory.

Violent Pornography and Violence against Women Scripts Ways of behaving socially that we learn implicitly from our culture. 1. 2. Sexual scripts adolescents are exposed to suggest to them the traditional female role is to resist the male’s sexual advances and male’s role is to be persistent. Although 95% of the males and 97% of the female high schoolers surveyed agreed that a man should stop sexual advances as soon as a woman says no, nearly 1/2 of those same students also believed that when a woman says no, she doesn’t always mean it.

Violent Pornography and Violence against Women • During the 1990 s, this confusion prompted several colleges to suggest that dating couples negotiate an explicit contract about their sexual conduct and limitations at the very beginning of the date. • But social critics lambasted these measures on the grounds that they encouraged fear and paranoia, destroyed the spontaneity of romance, and reduced the excitement of dating to something resembling a field trip to a lawyer’s office. They were eventually dropped. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Violent Pornography and Violence against Women • Coincidental with an increase in date rape has been an increase in the availability of magazines, films, and videocassettes depicting vivid, explicit sexual behavior. • Careful scientific research suggests an important distinction between simple pornography and violent pornography. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Violent Pornography and Violence against Women • Exposure to violent pornography promotes greater acceptance of sexual violence toward women and is almost certainly a factor associated with actual aggressive behavior toward women. • After watching violent pornography, men express more negative attitudes toward women and have more aggressive sexual fantasies. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

How to Reduce Aggression “Stop hitting your brother!” “Turn off the TV and go to your room!” • Trying to curb the aggressive behavior of their children, most parents use some form of punishment. • Some deny privileges; others use force. • How well does punishment work?

Does Punishing Aggression Reduce Aggressive Behavior? • If punishment takes the form of an aggressive act, the punishers are actually modeling aggressive behavior for the person whose aggressive behavior they are trying to stamp out and might induce that person to imitate their action. • Several experiments demonstrated that threat of relatively severe punishment does not make committing a transgression less appealing to a preschooler. • On the other hand, the threat of mild punishment—of a degree just powerful enough to get the child to stop the undesired activity temporarily—leads the child to try to justify his or her restraint and, as a result, can make the behavior less appealing.

USING PUNISHMENT ON VIOLENT ADULTS • DOES THE THREAT OF HARSH PUNISHMENTS FOR VIOLENT CRIMES MAKE SUCH CRIMES LESS LIKELY? • DO PEOPLE WHO ARE ABOUT TO COMMIT VIOLENT CRIMES SAY TO THEMSELVES, “I’D BETTER NOT DO THIS BECAUSE IF I GET CAUGHT, I’M GOING TO JAIL FOR A LONG TIME; I MIGHT EVEN BE EXECUTED. ” • THE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE IS MIXED. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

USING PUNISHMENT ON VIOLENT ADULTS LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS INDICATE THAT PUNISHMENT CAN INDEED ACT AS A DETERRENT IF TWO “IDEAL CONDITIONS” ARE MET: • IT MUST BE PROMPT. • IT MUST BE UNAVOIDABLE. IN THE REAL WORLD, THESE IDEAL CONDITIONS ARE ALMOST NEVER MET, ESPECIALLY IN A COMPLEX SOCIETY WITH A HIGH CRIME RATE AND A SLOW CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM LIKE OUR OWN.

During the past thirty years, the homicide rate in the United States has fluctuated between 6 and 10 murders per year for every 100, 000 people in the population. This statistic is striking when one compares it to other industrialized countries like Germany, England, and France, where the homicide rate has remained stable at less than 1 per 100, 000.

Catharsis and Aggression • Conventional wisdom suggests that one way to reduce feelings of aggression is to do something aggressive. • “Get it out of your system” has been a common piece of advice. • This common belief is based on an oversimplification of the psychoanalytic notion of catharsis.

Catharsis and Aggression Catharsis The notion that “blowing off steam”—by performing an aggressive act, watching others engage in aggressive behaviors, or engaging in a fantasy of aggression— relieves built-up aggressive energies and hence reduces the likelihood of further aggressive behavior.

THE EFFECTS OF AGGRESSIVE ACTS ON SUBSEQUENT AGGRESSION • WHEN FRUSTRATED OR ANGRY, MANY OF US DO FEEL LESS TENSE AFTER BLOWING OFF STEAM BY YELLING, CURSING, OR PERHAPS EVEN HITTING SOMEONE. • BUT DOES AGGRESSION REDUCE THE NEED FOR FURTHER AGGRESSION? DOES PLAYING COMPETITIVE GAMES, FOR EXAMPLE, SERVE AS A HARMLESS OUTLET FOR AGGRESSIVE ENERGIES? • GENERALLY, THE ANSWER IS NO. IN FACT, THE REVERSE IS TRUE: COMPETITIVE GAMES OFTEN MAKE PARTICIPANTS AND OBSERVERS MORE AGGRESSIVE.

THE EFFECTS OF AGGRESSIVE ACTS ON SUBSEQUENT AGGRESSION What about watching aggressive games? Will that reduce aggressive behavior? • As with participating in an aggressive sport, watching one also increases aggressive behavior.

THE EFFECTS OF AGGRESSIVE ACTS ON SUBSEQUENT AGGRESSION Finally, does direct aggression against the source of your anger reduce further aggression? Again, the answer is no. • When people commit acts of aggression, such acts increase the tendency toward future aggression. • Outside the lab, in the real world, we see the same phenomenon: Verbal acts of aggression are followed by further attacks.

BLAMING THE VICTIM OF OUR AGGRESSION • WHEN SOMEBODY ANGERS US, VENTING OUR HOSTILITY AGAINST THAT PERSON DOES SEEM TO RELIEVE TENSION AND MAKE US FEEL BETTER, AT LEAST TEMPORARILY—ASSUMING THE PERSON WE VENT ON DOESN’T DECIDE TO VENT BACK ON US. • BUT “FEELING BETTER” SHOULD NOT BE CONFUSED WITH A REDUCTION IN HOSTILITY. • WITH HUMAN BEINGS, AGGRESSION IS DEPENDENT NOT MERELY ON TENSIONS—WHAT A PERSON FEELS—BUT ALSO ON WHAT A PERSON THINKS.

BLAMING THE VICTIM OF OUR AGGRESSION • Research participants who inflicted either psychological or physical harm on an innocent person who had done them no prior harm then derogated their victims, convincing themselves they were not nice people and therefore deserved what they got. • This reduces dissonance, all right—and it also sets the stage for further aggression, for once a person has succeeded in derogating someone, it makes it easier to do further harm to the victim in the future.

The Effect of War on General Aggression • When a nation is at war, its people are more likely to commit aggressive acts against one another. • Being at war serves to legitimize violence as a way to address difficult problems. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

• Crime rates for 110 countries from 1900 on show that compared with similar nations that remained at peace, after a country had fought a war, its homicide rates rose substantially.

The Effect of War on General Aggression The fact that a nation is at war: (1) Weakens the population’s inhibitions against aggression, (2) Leads to imitation of aggression, (3) Makes aggressive responses more acceptable, and (4) Numbs our senses to the horror of cruelty and destruction, making us less sympathetic toward the victims.

What Are We Supposed to Do with Our Anger? It is possible to control our anger by actively enabling it to dissipate. “Actively enabling” means using such simple devices as counting to ten before shooting your mouth off. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

VENTING VERSUS SELFAWARENESS • IF YOUR CLOSE FRIEND OR SPOUSE DOES SOMETHING THAT MAKES YOU ANGRY, YOU MAY WANT TO EXPRESS THAT ANGER IN A WAY THAT HELPS YOU GAIN INSIGHT INTO YOURSELF AND THE DYNAMICS OF THE RELATIONSHIP. • BUT FOR THAT TO HAPPEN, THE ANGER MUST BE EXPRESSED IN A NONVIOLENT AND NON-DEMEANING WAY.

VENTING VERSUS SELFAWARENESS • Although it is probably best to reveal your anger to the friend who provoked it, at least if you are hoping to resolve the problem between you, sometimes it is helpful to write down your feelings in a journal. • Benefits of “opening up” are due not simply to venting of feeling but primarily to the insights and self-awareness that usually accompany such self-disclosure (Pennebaker, 1990).

DEFUSING ANGER THROUGH APOLOGY • ONE WAY TO REDUCE AGGRESSION IS FOR THE INDIVIDUAL WHO CAUSED THE FRUSTRATION TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACTION, APOLOGIZE FOR IT, AND INDICATE THAT IT IS UNLIKELY TO HAPPEN AGAIN. “Oops! My bad!”

THE MODELING OF NONAGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR • Modeling works with nonaggressive behavior too. • When children see adults, when provoked, express themselves in calm, respectful manner, children subsequently handle their own frustrations with less aggression. Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Social Psychology Elliot Aronson University of California, Santa Cruz Timothy D. Wilson University of Virginia Robin M. Akert Wellesley College slides by Travis Langley 6 th edition