Stepping up the pressure: arousal can be associated with a reduction in male aggression
- 17 June 2008
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in Aggressive Behavior
- Vol. 34 (6), 584-592
- https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.20270
Abstract
The attentional myopia model of behavioral control [Mann and Ward, 2007] was tested in an experiment investigating the relationship between physiological arousal and aggression. Drawing on previous work linking arousal and narrowed attentional focus, the model predicts that arousal will lead to behavior that is relatively disinhibited in situations in which promoting pressures to aggress are highly salient. In situations in which inhibitory pressures are more salient, the model predicts behavior that is relatively restrained. In the experiment, 81 male undergraduates delivered noise‐blasts against a provoking confederate while experiencing either high or low levels of physiological arousal and, at the same time, being exposed to cues that served either to promote or inhibit aggression. In addition to supporting the predictions of the model, this experiment provided some of the first evidence for enhanced control of aggression under conditions of heightened physiological arousal. Implications for interventions designed to reduce aggression are discussed. Aggr. Behav. 34:584–592, 2008.Keywords
This publication has 69 references indexed in Scilit:
- Alcohol and AggressionPsychological Science, 2007
- Health information processed under limited attention: Is it better to be "hot" or "cool?"Health Psychology, 2007
- Alcohol myopia and condom use: Can alcohol intoxication be associated with more prudent behavior?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2000
- Don't mind if I do: Disinhibited eating under cognitive load.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2000
- Catharsis, aggression, and persuasive influence: Self-fulfilling or self-defeating prophecies?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1999
- Arousal and evaluative extremity in social judgments: A dynamic complexity modelEuropean Journal of Social Psychology, 1994
- Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1988
- Cognition-excitation interdependences in aggressive behaviorAggressive Behavior, 1988
- Irrelevance of mitigating circumstances in retaliatory behavior at high levels of excitationJournal of Research in Personality, 1975
- Aggression and heat: Mediating effects of prior provocation and exposure to an aggressive model.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1975