EFFECTS OF MITIGATING INFORMATION ON AROUSAL AND RETALIATORY AGGRESSION

Abstract

An experiment based on teacher-student paradigm was conducted to examine effects of mitigating information on arousal and retaliatory aggression. The timing of presentation of mitigating information (post -vs. pre -attack) and the degree of mitigating information (medium, vs. high) ware manipulated as independent variables, and the group which didn't have mitigating information was also tested as a control group. The sbjects were 44 university students. They were strongly attacked before they retaliated.The main findings were as follows;1. Mitigating information given before an attack of another person (who was a colleague of the experimenter) suppressed the physiological arousal elicited by the attack, but if it was given after the attack, it could not suppress the arousal.2. Two types of retaliatory aggression (indirect aggression, direct aggression) were found.3. In indirect aggression, mitigating information suppressed retaliatory aggression only when it was given before attack regardless of the degree of the information. It was suggested that indirect aggression was influenced mainly by physiological variables.4. In direct aggression, retaliatory aggression was influenced by both the timing of presentation and degree of mitigating information. It was suggested that direct aggression was influenced by both physiological and cognitive variables.