Aggressive Cognitions Research Articles

Due diligence: revisiting the heat-aggression association hypothesis

ABSTRACTPrevious research has asserted that individuals hold cognitive associations between the constructs of hot temperatures and aggression. However, subsequent studies have cast doubt on whether these previously used methods reliably produce effects that support this assertion. Thus, the evidence for the existence of a cognitive heat-aggression association is mixed. To test for this hypothetical association using a different method, and to address shortcomings in the previously-used methods, the current studies used a modified Affect Misattribution Procedure to examine whether exposure to heat-related words increased the accessibility of aggressive cognitions. Both a pilot study and a Registered Report showed that exposure to heat-related words increased the accessibility of aggressive cognitions. However, exposure to cold-related words also, and unexpectedly, increased the accessibility of aggressive cognitions. In addition, these results were only found for participants who reported that the primes influenced their Misattribution Task performance. Thus, although the current results found that exposure to heat-related stimuli caused theoretically predicted effects, the overall evidence is somewhat mixed as to whether this is due to a cognitive association between hot temperatures and aggression.

不同情境线索下对攻击性的影响——以城管为研究载体

研究以张家界城管为被试，探讨不同情景线索对城管攻击性的影响。实验1使用不同类型的图片作为启动材料，通过测量外显攻击性认知和内隐攻击认知来探讨其对城管攻击性的影响。实验2使用不同指向的文字材料作为启动材料来探讨对该材料对城管攻击态度和攻击情绪影响。结果表明：1) 被试在暴力图片启动下，外显攻击性会提高，内隐攻击性也会提高，其中被试在城管暴力执法图片启动下，比普通暴力图片内隐攻击性更高。2) 在不同指向的文字材料启动下，阅读过程指向城管的敌意情绪会显著提高，攻击态度没有显著差异。 The study took city management of Zhangjiajie as the subject to explore the influence of differ-ent situational cues on the attack of city management. Experiment 1 uses different types of im-ages as the starting material, and probes into the influence of aggression on urban management by means of explicit aggression cognition and implicit attack cognition. Experiment 2 discusses the influence of the material on the attack attitude and the attack on the city management by using the different pointing materials as the starting material. Results show that: 1) The subjects were started under violent images; explicit aggression will improve; implicit aggression will also increase; among them, the subjects were shown to be more aggressive than normal images of violence. 2) The hostility of the reading process to the urban management can be significantly increased with the starting of different pointed text materials, and there is no significant differ-ence in the attack attitude.

The Influence of Aggression-Evoking Cues on Aggressive Cognitions in Males and Females: Different Procedures \u2013 Similar Effects

Three experiments examined the effect of aggression-evoking cues on aggressive cognitions related to physical, verbal, and relational aggression and internal states (anger and hostility). In Experiment 1 (n = 40), the priming effect of masculinity threat on four categories of aggressive cognitions was investigated among males; Experiment 2 (n = 46) tested whether exposure to images stimulating negative and sexual arousal induced higher accessibility of aggressive constructs in men; in Experiment 3 (n = 95), female participants completed a self-report questionnaire measuring aggressive behavior, administered so as to activate their aggressive cognitions. All three studies revealed that, when the concept “aggression” is activated, the accessibility of physically aggressive thoughts increases regardless of the participant’s sex or the sorts of stimuli used to evoke aggressive cognitions. Thoughts related to verbal and relational aggression, anger, and hostility were not activated. The findings are discussed in terms of the cognitive-neoassociationistic model of aggression in which physical aggression may play the role of the core of an aggression cognition network that is easily activated without spreading that effect on associated constructs.

Russian Validation of Homophobia Scale (HS)

Introduction: A three-factors self-reporting questionnaire, consisting of 25 items, related to behavior/negative affect, affect/behavioral aggression, and negative cognition towards homosexual people, was administered to a sample of 200 farmer workers recruited in various ways from two Bryansk and Kursk regions of Russian Federation. Aim: The objective of this paper is to validate the HS in the Russian sample in Russian language. Methods: A Russian translation of the HS was carried out by two bilingual translators, after which an English native translated the Russian test back into the English language. Main Outcome Measures: Together with the translated version of HS was administrated a biodata questionnaire including the main information as age, level of education, partnership status, faith and sex orientation. Results : Analyzing obtained data of 200 subjects (100 (50%) female and 100 (50%) male) with ages ranging from 18 to 50 years (mean age = 21.19±2.65; SD: 8.82) showed an overall Cronbach’s α coefficient 0.92 of the internal consistency. All three domains had a good alpha coefficient (three higher than .91), whereas in the total score was .87. The test-retest reliability results: behavior/negative affect was r = 0.79 (P < 0.0001), affect/behavioral aggression was r = 0.82 (P < 0.0001), negative cognition was r = 0.74 (P < 0.0001) and the HS total score was r = 0.93 (P < 0.0001). Conclusions: This study offers a new tool to assess homophobia in Russian population. The Russian validation of the HS in Russian language revealed the use of this self-report test to have good psychometric properties. Therefore, this scale is a necessary diagnostic instrument to detect subtle homophobic attitudes toward homosexual people and useful in the preventive programs of homophobic behavior, in the clinical praxis.

Due diligence: revisiting the heat–aggression association hypothesis

ABSTRACTPrevious research has suggested that individuals hold cognitive associations between the constructs of hot temperatures and aggression. However, subsequent close replication attempts have cast doubt on the replicability of these effects. Therefore, the evidence for the existence of a cognitive heat–aggression association is mixed. A pilot study used a modified Affect Misattribution Procedure to examine whether exposure to heat-related words increased the accessibility of aggressive cognitions. The results of the pilot study showed that exposure to heat-related words increased the accessibility of aggressive cognitions relative to “comparison” trials (i.e. non-heat-related words and nonsense letter strings). I propose a direct replication of this pilot study, which will further test the existence of a heat–aggression association.

Media Violence and Other Aggression Risk Factors in Seven Nations.

Cultural generality versus specificity of media violence effects on aggression was examined in seven countries (Australia, China, Croatia, Germany, Japan, Romania, the United States). Participants reported aggressive behaviors, media use habits, and several other known risk and protective factors for aggression. Across nations, exposure to violent screen media was positively associated with aggression. This effect was partially mediated by aggressive cognitions and empathy. The media violence effect on aggression remained significant even after statistically controlling a number of relevant risk and protective factors (e.g., abusive parenting, peer delinquency), and was similar in magnitude to effects of other risk factors. In support of the cumulative risk model, joint effects of different risk factors on aggressive behavior in each culture were larger than effects of any individual risk factor.

Aggression in young men high in threat potential increases after hearing low-pitched male voices: two tests of the retaliation-cost model

Abstract Research suggests that male voice pitch is an honest dominance signal because it indexes men's physicality and because lower-pitched voices are more costly to develop and maintain. Rather than considering these signaler-dependent mechanisms, we tested a receiver-dependent mechanism hypothesized by M. Enquist's (1985) retaliation-cost model of aggressive signaling. The model predicts that, given a competitive scenario, low-pitched male voices will elicit aggression from male listeners (i.e., signal receivers) who are relatively high in threat potential. We confirmed this hypothesis in two experiments. Under a sexual but not control prime and after listening to low- but not average-pitched male voices, increases in heterosexual male participants' trait dominance predicted stronger aggressive cognitions (Experiment 1), and increases in male participants' handgrip strength predicted stronger aggressive intent (Experiment 2). These findings provide the first direct support for the retaliation-cost model in humans, extend research on the effects of male voice pitch on receiver psychology, and demonstrate an additional cost mechanism that explains why voice pitch is an honest signal of dominance in men.

The American Psychological Association Task Force assessment of violent video games: Science in the service of public interest.

A task force of experts was convened by the American Psychological Association (APA) to update the knowledge and policy about the impact of violent video game use on potential adverse outcomes. This APA Task Force on Media Violence examined the existing literature, including the meta-analyses in the field, since the last APA report on media violence in 2005. Because the most recent meta-analyses were published in 2010 and reflected work through 2009, the task force conducted a search of the published studies from 2009-2013. These recently published articles were scored and assessed by a systematic evidentiary review, followed by a meta-analysis of the high utility studies, as documented in the evidentiary review. Consistent with the literature that we reviewed, we found that violent video game exposure was associated with: an increased composite aggression score; increased aggressive behavior; increased aggressive cognitions; increased aggressive affect, increased desensitization, and decreased empathy; and increased physiological arousal. The size of the effects was similar to that in prior meta-analyses, suggesting a stable result. Our task force concluded that violent video game use is a risk factor for adverse outcomes, but found insufficient studies to examine any potential link between violent video game use and delinquency or criminal behavior. Our technical report is the basis of this article. (PsycINFO Database Record

Construct Validity of Adults’ Retrospective Memory for Childhood TV Viewing: Self-Reported Early Exposure to Violent TV Programs Predicts Current Aggression

ABSTRACTConstruct validity was investigated of a measure of remote past television viewing in which adults reported their childhood viewing of specific television series. Good recall of past viewing was predicted due to two robust memory capabilities, specifically, high accuracy at estimating frequency of exposure to stimuli, and durable long-term memories for repeatedly-encountered material. Validity was tested by examining relationships between self-reported childhood TV viewing and current aggression. Results indicated that recalled childhood viewing of programs containing violent content was positively related to adult aggressive behavior directly, and aggressive cognitions indirectly, independently of adult exposure to violent TV programs, exposure to nonviolent TV programs, parental disciplinary style, and sex. A valid self-report measure of remote past TV viewing behavior can enable researchers to examine, in a relatively quick and inexpensive manner, long-term relationships between early viewing of any television content and any later psychological outcomes of interest.

A Higher-Than-Average Female Voice Can Cause Young Adult Female Listeners to Think About Aggression More

Previous research found that speakers with more attractive voices receive more favorable evaluations (aka the vocal attractiveness stereotype). But sexual selection theory predicts that, to the extent that men perceive women with higher pitched voices as more attractive, women will be more hostile toward those women because they make more threatening mate rivals. Supporting this hypothesis, Study 1 ( N = 102) showed that female participants higher in trait dominance displayed heightened aggressive cognition after being primed with a romantic (but not a control) feeling and listening to a higher- but not lower-than-average female voice. Study 2 ( N = 111) showed that this heightened aggressive cognition was activated by a long-term but not a short-term mating motive. These findings supported sexual selection theory, challenged the vocal attractiveness stereotype, and suggested a mechanism that helps maintain the honesty of female voice pitch as a mate attraction signal.

Emotion and aggressive intergroup cognitions: The ANCODI hypothesis.

Previous research has suggested an important role for the emotion of hatred in intergroup aggression. Recent theoretical and empirical work has strongly suggested that the combination of anger, contempt, and disgust (ANCODI) comprise the basic elements of hatred, and are the key emotions associated with intergroup aggression. No study, however, has provided evidence that these emotions cause hostile cognitions about specific groups. We report two studies that provide initial evidence. In both, participants were members of ideologically motivated groups and were primed with ANCODI. In Study 1 participants primed with ANCODI produced more aggressive cognitions relative to their opponent outgroup than a neutral outgroup; this effect did not occur for participants primed with fear-sadness. In Study 2 participants primed with ANCODI engaged in more competitive decision making against their opponent outgroups than a neutral outgroup; this effect did not occur for participants primed with disgust only. These findings contribute to the literature on the role of emotion in intergroup aggression and hostility, and provide a more nuanced view of the role of emotions in intergroup relations, possibly identifying the basic emotional elements of hatred. Aggr. Behav. 43:93-107, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Dangerous minds? Effects of uncivil online comments on aggressive cognitions, emotions, and behavior

Despite the potential of online commenting spaces for public deliberation, they are often full of destructive or uncivil and aggressive comments. Based on research on social learning and social influence, we conducted an online experiment to investigate the effects of uncivil comments on readers' cognitive, emotional, and behavioral reactions. The experiment was built on a one-factorial between-subjects design including four experimental conditions and a control group: Participants were exposed to a news article and six user comments of which zero, one, three, or six were uncivil. Results suggest that exposure to uncivil comments can lead to an increase in readers' hostile cognitions. The effect, however, does not rise with exposure to a higher proportion of incivility. No significant effects were found on hostile emotions or the use of incivility in readers' own comments.

Violent Lyrics = Aggressive Listeners?

Abstract. Research on music has had an impressive impact. For example, the semantic content of lyrics seems to cause associated short-term effects regarding cognition and affect. However, we argue that these effects might have been confounded by other musical parameters related to time, pitch, texture, or voice of the selected songs. This study overcame this methodological problem by using different versions of an experimentally manipulated song. In a 2 × 2 between-subjects design, 120 university students listened to four versions of a song with violent or prosocial lyrics presented in slow or fast tempo. As predicted by theories of priming, violent lyrics increased aggressive cognitions (word completion test) and aggressive affect (self-reported state anger) in comparison with prosocial lyrics. However, the reverse effects of prosocial lyrics on prosocial cognitions and prosocial affect could not be confirmed. Finally, the tempo of the song did not consistently increase self-reported arousal, and we did not find more extreme effects under conditions of fast tempo as predicted by the arousal-extremity model.

Fight fire with rainbows: The effects of displayed violence, difficulty, and performance in digital games on affect, aggression, and physiological arousal

There is a large amount of variables that need to be taken into account when studying the effects of violent content in digital games; one of those being difficulty. In the current study participants played a modified first-person shooter in one of four different conditions, with either high or low difficulty and high or low violent game content. We assessed number of kills and number of deaths as game performance. Neither the difficulty nor the displayed violence had an effect on psychophysiological arousal during play, post-game aggressive cognitions, nor aggressive behavior. Thus, this study corroborates previous research indicating that violence in games does not substantially influence human behavior or experience, and other game characteristics deserve more attention in game effects studies. In addition, findings showed that challenge manipulated by game difficulty is of main importance for post-game emotions: Number of deaths predicted positive affect, but only in the low difficulty condition while number of kills was a positive predictor for positive affect and a negative predictor for negative affect.

Violent Video Games and Children’s Aggressive Behaviors

The literature provides some evidence that the use of violent video games increases the risk for young people to develop aggressive cognitions and even behaviors. We aimed to verify whether exposure to violent video games is linked to problems of aggression in a sample of Italian children. Four questionnaires were administered to 346 children between 7 and 14 years of age, attending primary and secondary schools in Northern Italy. Variables measured were externalization, quality of interpersonal relationships, aggression, quality of coping strategies, and parental stress. Participants who preferred violent games showed higher scores for externalization and aggression. The use of violent video games and age were linked to higher levels of aggression, coping strategies, and the habitual video game weekly consumption of participants. Our data confirm the role of violent video games as risk factors for problems of aggressive behavior and of externalization in childhood and early adolescence.

Anger and effortful control moderate aggressogenic thought–behaviour associations

The effects of anger and effortful control on aggressogenic thought–behaviour associations were investigated among a total of 311 Finnish fifth and sixth graders (mean age = 11.9 years). Self-reported aggressive cognitions (i.e., normative- and self-efficacy beliefs about aggression) were expected to be associated with higher peer-reported aggressive behaviour. Teacher reported anger and effortful control were hypothesised, and found, to moderate the effects of aggressive cognitions on aggression, such that the effects were strongest for children who were high in anger and low in effortful control, as compared to other conditions. Furthermore, under the conditions of high anger and high effortful control, self-efficacy was negatively related to aggression. Thus, aggression is a result of a complex, hierarchically organised motivational system, being jointly influenced by aggressive cognitions, anger and effortful control. The findings support the importance of examining cognitive and emotional structures jointly when predicting children’s aggressive behaviour.

Aggressive priming online: Facebook adverts can prime aggressive cognitions

Through the process of priming, incidental stimuli in our environments can influence our thoughts, feelings and behaviour. This may be true of incidental stimuli in online environments, such as adverts on websites. Two experiments (N=325, N=331) showed that the mere presence of advertisements with violent content on a simulated Facebook page induced higher levels of aggression-related cognition in comparison to non-violent adverts (d=0.56, d=0.71). In a subsequent word recognition task, participants primed with the violent stimuli ‘remembered’ more actually-unseen violence-related words than did the control participants. That is, they reported recognising violent words they had not actually seen. However, priming with violent adverts had no effect on mood or person perception. A third correlational study (N=131) examined whether variance in the extent of priming could be attributed to individual differences in aggressiveness. Participants’ aggressiveness was unrelated to their scores on the aggressive cognition measure. These studies established that website adverts with violent content could prime aggressive cognitions. Individuals differed in the extent to which they experienced the priming effect, and this was not attributable to their levels of trait aggressiveness. No effects of priming were found on either mood state or person perception.

Priming or Proteus Effect? Examining the Effects of Avatar Race on In-Game Behavior and Post-Play Aggressive Cognition and Affect in Video Games

This research uses a 2 × 2 factorial experiment to further investigate the Proteus effect for avatar race observed in previous research by measuring in-game behavior, the use of stereotypes to describe the avatar, and perceived embodiment of the avatar. Participants played a boxing video game as White or Black avatar against a White or Black avatar. Results revealed no main effects for avatar race, but embodiment was found to moderate the relationship between avatar race and in-game behavior. Subsequent probing of this interaction revealed that the Proteus effect was demonstrated for those who experienced greater embodiment. Avatar race was unrelated to the use of stereotypes, but main effects for aggressive cognition and affect were found. Also, same-race conditions demonstrated increased aggressive behavior compared to opposite-race conditions. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

Violent audiovisual content and social consequences: The moderating role of aggression in adolescents

AbstractNumerous studies have linked the consumption of violent audiovisual content to the increase of aggressive cognitions and behaviors. This research aims to clarify whether the possible harmful consequences of violent videogames might vary depending on an individual variable such as trait aggressiveness. A correlational study was carried out among 6,130 teenagers (average age of 13.8 years) from two European countries, in which it became evident, by means of multiple regression analyses, that there was a positive correlation between the use of violent videogames and aggressive behavioral intentions. More relevantly, these correlations were greater amongst those subjects with higher scores on the Aggression Scale. Finally, when analyzing the subjective experiences of users of violent videogames, the more aggressive individuals manifested a greater desire to imitate the characters of the interactive content, admitting that they ended up more agitated even when their initial objective was to relieve tension or relax. Practical and theoretical implications (e.g., Catharsis theory) of those results are discussed.

Adult Attention Deficit Disorder and Aggressive Behaviour: An Exploration of Relationships between Brown Attention-Deficit Disorder Scales and the Aggression Questionnaire

Aggressive and violent behaviour is often associated with a diagnosis of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This article investigates the relationship between adult attention deficit disorder (ADD) and aggressive cognitions. The Aggression Questionnaire and the Brown Attention-Deficit Disorder Scales were administered to two samples: a “low-risk sample” comprising university students (n = 60), and a “high-risk sample” of prison inmates (n = 117). The prevalence of “probable ADD” was found to be higher in the prison sample (33%), compared with the university sample (20%). There were moderate correlations >r = .5 (p < .01) between total ADHD and Aggression Questionnaire scores in both groups. There were also moderate to strong correlations between subscales of both measures, including cognitive processes such as attention and memory and various forms of aggression, which were particularly apparent in the prison sample. The relationship between ADHD and aggressive behaviour suggests that the treatment of adult ADHD may aid in the management of aggressive behaviour.