The Effect of Exposure to Weapons on Aggressive Behavior from a Cross-Cultural Perspective

Abstract

Abstract An attempt was made to replicate the Berkowitz and Le Page (1967) study with a Swedish population, and to extend it. A pilot study was conducted to find out what other possible stimuli carry aggressive connotations and what stimuli might have aggression-inhibiting qualities. One hundred male high school students were either angered or not angered by an accomplice of the experimenter and then given an opportunity to counter-aggress. For one group of subjects there were weapons near the shock key and half of these subjects were told to handle them. For another group there were aggression-inhibiting stimuli present, e.g., a baby bottle. In other conditions there were no stimuli present. Parts of the TAT were administered to shed some light on the catharsis phenomenon. Subjects exposed to weapons gave the largest number of shocks to their partners, whereas the control group and the group exposed to aggression-inhibiting stimuli did not differ. The “weapons effect” was obtained with a Swedish population.