Aggression
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Kenjiro Sano
Tama Art University students hold mock funeral for disgraced
alumni Kenjiro Sano, designer of withdrawn 2020 olympic logo
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Kenjiro Sano
Olivier Debie
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Jennifer Pan, fed her parents lies about her success and then hired
hitman to kill them in 2010.
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Definition of Aggression
• Layperson definition
– Assertive, Competitive, Forward, Risk-taking,
Dominant, Angry, etc
• Social psychologist define aggression as:
– Behavior that is intended to harm another individual
who does not wish to be harmed.
• Harming without intent shouldn’t be called aggression
• No harming, but intending to do so, should be called
aggression
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Forms of Aggression
• Physical aggression (e.g., hitting, stabbing)
• Verbal aggression (e.g., name calling, screaming)
• Relational aggression (e.g., ostracism, rejection)
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Motives of Aggression
• Emotional/impulsive aggression (also called
reactive, hostile aggression)
– motivated by a desire to harm someone.
– an end in itself
• Instrumental/cognitive aggression (also called
proactive aggression)
– goal is something other than causing pain (e.g.,
obtaining money, storing one’s image, etc.)
– a means to an some other end
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Biological Causes of Aggression
• Is aggression evolutionarily adaptive?
– If aggression helps in either our individual survival
or in the survival of our genes, then the process of
natural selection may well cause humans, as it would
any other animal, to be aggressive.
– Aggression is in part genetically determined.
It is not necessarily evolutionarily adaptive to aggress in all
situations.
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• Testosterone and Aggression: Dabbs, Hargrove, and
Heusel (1996) measured the testosterone levels of 240
members of 12 fraternities at two universities.
– Fraternities that had the highest average testosterone levels
were also more wild and unruly.
– The relationship between testosterone and aggression is not
limited to males.
– Engaging in aggression causes temporary increases in
testosterone. The effect of aggression on testosterone is
probably stronger than the effect of testosterone on
aggression.
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• Serotonin and aggression
– Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that influences mood, appetite,
and sleep and that reduces aggression.
– Berman, McCloskey, Fanning, Schumacher, and Coccaro
(2009)
• Selected two groups of participants who were more or less aggressive
in the past (self-reported);
• then randomly assigned them to receive either a drug that raises
serotonin levels or a placebo;
• Aggression measure: noise blast task (to punish the loser of a
competitive game).
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• Participants who reported having engaged in a lot of aggressive behaviors (right panel) were
more aggressive than did those who reported being less aggressive (left panel).
• For the more aggressive participants, the aggression levels increased over the course of the
experiment for those who did NOT take serotonin but aggression did not significantly
increase for those who had taken serotonin.
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Biological Causes of Aggression
• Is aggression evolutionarily adaptive?
• Aggression is in part genetically determined.
• Caspi and his colleagues (2002) found evidence for the
person x situation interaction in determining
aggression.
– They focused on the influence of the monoamine oxidase
(MAOA) gene, which produces an enzyme influencing the
production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that influences
mood, appetite, and sleep and that reduces aggression.
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• Antisocial behavior and aggression were greater for children who had been
severely maltreated.
• This effect was even stronger for children with a gene variation that reduced
the production of serotonin.
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• How about alcohol?
– Alcohol disrupts executive functions.
– When people are intoxicated, they become more self-focused
and less aware of the social situation, a state that is known
as alcohol myopia.
– Alcohol also influences aggression through expectations.
• The sight of a bottle of alcohol or an alcohol advertisement increases
aggressive thoughts and hostile attributions about others (Bartholow
& Heinz, 2006)
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Emotional Causes of Aggression
• Negative feelings: Frustration, Anger
• Feeling of threat
• Displaced aggression: when negative emotions
caused by one person trigger aggression toward
a different person.
– E.g., Aggression following social exclusion/rejection
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Social/Situational Causes of Aggression
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Social cues (e.g., weapons)
Social learning (rewards and reinforcement)
Media
Personal and cultural contributors
Deindividuation
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Learning I: Two Factor Theory of
Aggression (Berkowitz)
• We are not born with innate tendencies to be
aggressive
• Two factors must co-occur in order to produce
aggression
– Arousal (could be hormonal, could be external
induced)
– External cue (learned to be associated with
aggression)
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Origins of 2-factory theory
• Originally stems from the “frustrationaggression” hypothesis
“Frustraion, and only frustration, causes
aggression, and only aggression”
– This hypothesis is generally not
supported, because
• Many things can instigate aggression
• Frustration causes other feelings and
behaviors (helplessness, reactance, and so on)
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Learning I: Two Factor Theory of
Aggression (Berkowitz)
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Learning II- Social Learning
• Is aggression learned? - Bandura’s Bobo
Doll Studies
• Participants were normal children
• Watched violent TV episode or various “control”
episodes that were not violent
• Manipulated whether aggressor in video was rewarded or
not
• Observed children in play area after they watched video
• Aggression defined as number of times the children hit
the bobo doll
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Results
• Viewing rewarded violence increases violent
behaviors in children.
• Viewing unrewarded violence does not necessarily
increase violence
• So, what are the effects of watching? Catharsis
or modeling?
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Media Effects on Suicide
(Phillips, 1977, 1978)
• U.S. suicides increase
after publicized suicide
stories
• the more publicity given
to the suicide story, the
higher the suicide rate
thereafter; and
• occurs mainly in the
geographic area the rise
occurs mainly in the
geographic area where
the suicide story is
publicized
Phillips (1974)
1600
1400
1200
Differenc
es
between
observed
and usual
monthly
suicide
rates
1000
800
600
400
200
0
-200
-400
1 Month
Before
Month of
Story
1 Month
After
2 Months
After
3 Months
After
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Media Effects on Suicide
(Phillips, 1977, 1978)
• Also, single-car crash fatalities increase more than
other types, and
• the driver in these crashes is significantly similar to the
person described in the suicide story, while the
passengers are not.
• THEREFORE:
– suicide stories appear to elicit additional which are disguised
as auto suicides
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Media Effects on Homicide
Phillips
• What sort of media-depicted homicide would be
modeled?
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Rewarded
Made exciting
Perceived as real
Culturally justified
• What is shown on TV that fits these criteria?
Heavyweight Prizefighting
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Media Effects on Homicide
Phillips
• Across U.S., homicide rates increased by 12.5%
following highly publicized prize fights.
• The more publicized the fight, the greater the
increase in the rate
• The relationship between prize-fight and
homicide rate persisted after statistically
controlling for day of week, seasons, and other
extraneous variables
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Media Effects on Homicide
Phillips
• Hypothesis 1:
– Prize fighting triggers an increase in gambling, which
in turn provokes anger, fighting, and murder.
– However, increased homicide rate did not occur
following the Super Bowl. Therefore, not supported.
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Media Effects on Homicide
Phillips
• Hypothesis 2:
– Prize fight merely precipitated a murder that would
have occurred anyway, even in the absence of the
prize fight.
– Found no evidence of any dip in homicides soon
after the peak. Therefore, not supported.
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Media Effects on Homicide
Phillips
• Hypothesis 3:
– Social learning / modeling hypothesis.
– Was there victim modeling? -- is a person more likely
to aggress against a target victim if his target is
similar to the victim?
– This hypothesis was supported:
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• White-loser prize fights are followed by significant
increases in young, white male homicides; in contrast,
Black-loser prize fights do not seem to trigger young,
white male homicides
• Black-loser prize fights are followed by significant
increases in young, Black male homicides. White-loser
prize fights do not trigger significant increases in Black
male homicides.
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Violence in Japanese TV:
Personal Observations
• Japan has (or had) extraordinarily low violent
crime rate
• Japan has explicit violence/nudity on TV, even
on Sunday mornings
• How can this be?
– Offenders NOT rewarded
– The consequences of the violence are shown, not
ignored. Grieving widows, children, etc.
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• Why does viewing violence leads to aggression?
– Increased accessibility of violence
– Modeling: people may simply imitate the violence
they observe.
– Desensitization: viewing violence causes individuals to
be used to and thus less influenced by violence.
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Videogame Violence
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Violent Video Games
• General Aggression Model
– Anderson & Bushman, 2002
Craig Anderson
Brad Bushman
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Single
Episode
Model
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Bushman and Anderson (2002)
• Participants played either a violent (Carmageddon,
Duke Nukem, Mortal Kombat, Future Cop) or
nonviolent (Glider Pro, 3D Pinball, Austin Powers,
Tetra Madness) video game.
• Then they read ambiguous stories about
potential interpersonal conflicts.
• Asked what the main character would do, say,
think, and feel as the story continued.
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• GOING TO A RESTAURANT
– Jane had worked hard all day long cleaning her apartment.
She was tired but decided to reward herself with a meal in
one of the restaurants down the street. Upon entering the
restaurant, Jane decided upon a Caesar salad, French onion
soup, and filet mignon. Some 15 minutes later, a waiter came
around to take her order. Time slowly passed and Jane was
getting hungrier and hungrier. Finally, about 45 minutes after
her order had been taken, Jane was about to leave when she
saw the waiter approaching with her food.
– What happens next?
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Violent Video Games
• Sample responses:
– Think:
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“Damn this service is shitty.”
Hit the waiter.
“This guy needs to be fired.”
“WHAT IDIOTS!!!”
“I hate this waiter!”
“This place sucks!”
“No tip here.”
“They better not charge me for this food.”
“What took so damn long?”
“I should set this table cloth on fire!”
“I’m going to tell everyone how lousy it is here.”
“I should write to the newspaper about this place.”
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• Sample responses:
– Feel:
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Mad
Hostile Offended
Irritated
Pissed off
Cranky
Frustrated with the service
Angry
Cruel
Pushed to the limit
Bitchy
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• Sample responses:
– Do/Say:
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Eat and refuse to pay
Punch the waiter
“I hope this isn’t your real job!”
“What did you have to do, butcher a cow?”
Steal the silverware
“Keep the food. I’m gone!”
Dump the food on the waiter’s head
Swear at the manager
“I wish I had him as my waiter!” (pointing to another waiter)
“Did you have to go to France to get the French onion soup?”
I was contemplating whether this floral centerpiece was edible.
She calls the restaurant and orders four steaks to pick up by a different name
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• Those playing violent video games were more likely to
report aggressive responses.
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Personal and Culutral influences on
Aggression
• Individual factors
– Rejection sensitivity: people who are more sensitive
to rejection tend to be more aggressive.
– Self-esteem: who are more aggressive?
• School bullies are those who always want to be the center
of attention, who cannot take criticism (Salmivalli &
Nieminen, 2002)
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• Gender differences
– There is a universal tendency for men to be more
violent than women (Archer & Coyne, 2005; Crick
& Nelson, 2002).
– The differences between men and women are
smaller after they have been frustrated, insulted, or
threatened (Bettencourt & Miller, 1996)
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• Why such gender differences?
– Hormones (e.g., Testoserone)
– Evolutionary factors: Men engaged in more aggressive
behaviors, such as defense, hunting, and fighting.
– Gender differences may be in part socially learned
Aggressive boys are often the most popular children in elementary
schools (Rodkin, Farmer, Pearl, & Van Acker, 2000).
Meanwhile, girls who successfully use nonphysical or relational
aggression may also gain social benefits.
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• Cultural differences
– Cohen, Nisbett, Bosdle, & Schwarz (1996) compared how White male
students who had grown up in the northern vs southern regions of the
United States responded to insults.
– In a narrow hallway, a confederate bumped into the participant and
insulted him.
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Deindividuation and aggression
• Deindividuation: A reduction of inner restraints
of self-awareness where individuals are
submerged in a group (Festinger, 1952).
• -people thus may lose their inhibition about
engaging in aggression
• That is, being anonymous reduces the inner
restrains about increases aggressive behavior.
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Reducing Aggression
• Reduce stressors such as frustration, discomfort,
and provocation.
• Teach and model nonviolent responses to
frustrations and social problems
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Reducing Aggression
• Emphasize cooperation over competitiveness.
• Change cost-reward payoffs associated with
aggression.
• Education may be most effective approach.
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