Intégration du genre du couple agresseur–victime et du contexte socio-émotionnel de l’agression dans le jugement de blâme : approche développementale

Abstract

Impact of gender of the aggressor–victim pair and of socio-emotional context of the aggression on judgment of blame were evaluated using Anderson's Information Integration Theory. Three age groups were compared: preadolescents, adolescents and young adults. Results showed that adolescents and young adults appropriated more blame to a boy attacking a girl versus a girl attacking a boy, than preadolescents who did not distinguish between male and female aggressors. According to the literature, these results may be explained by the widely held view that men are stronger than women. They could also be explained by the fact that the consequences for a male who attacks a female are generally worse than for a female who attacks a male, in that they are punished more severely, particularly by adolescents who are building their own gendered identities. Moreover, all groups appropriated less blame to aggressors who were humiliated or slapped before they committed the behavior. In other words, they take the socio-emotional context of the aggression into account as an extenuating circumstance. However, whilst preadolescents did not distinguish between male and female aggressors, adolescents were always more critical of a man who had attacked a woman than of a woman who had attacked a man. Adults were only more critical of males specifically when the males had been slapped before attacking a female. These results may reflect traditional male and female stereotypes whereby society expects adult men to be strong and able to withstand provoked whilst it is more acceptable for boys to be affected by and respond to being slapped. Finally, as expected, the consequences of the aggressive behaviors were taken into account differently across the different age groups. Adults were significantly more critical in zero consequence situations and significantly less critical in situations presenting consequences than preadolescents. Adults have the ability to consider the potential consequences of actions and have perspective. On the other hand, the immaturity that comes with being a child is considered to be an extenuating circumstance.