Mad Men
Kirk Kristofferson et al.
Journal of Consumer Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Marketers frequently use scarcity promotions, where a product or event is limited in availability. The present research shows conditions under which the mere exposure to such advertising can activate actual aggression that manifests even outside the domain of the good being promoted. Further, we document the process underlying this effect: exposure to limited-quantity promotion advertising prompts consumers to perceive other shoppers as competitive threats to obtaining a desired product and physiologically prepares consumers to aggress. Seven studies using multiple behavioral measures of aggression demonstrate this deleterious response to scarcity promotions.
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David Chester & Nathan DeWall
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
How does emotion explain the relationship between social rejection and aggression? Rejection reliably damages mood, leaving individuals motivated to repair their negatively valenced affective state. Retaliatory aggression is often a pleasant experience. Rejected individuals may then harness revenge’s associated positive affect to repair their mood. Across 6 studies (total N = 1,516), we tested the prediction that the rejection–aggression link is motivated by expected and actual mood repair. Further, we predicted that this mood repair would occur through the positive affect of retaliatory aggression. Supporting these predictions, naturally occurring (Studies 1 and 2) and experimentally manipulated (Studies 3 and 4) motives to repair mood via aggression moderated the rejection–aggression link. These effects were mediated by sadistic impulses toward finding aggression pleasant (Studies 2 and 4). Suggesting the occurrence of actual mood repair, rejected participants’ affective states were equivalent to their accepted counterparts after an act of aggression (Studies 5 and 6). This mood repair occurred through a dynamic interplay between preaggression affect and aggression itself, and was driven by increases in positive affect (Studies 5 and 6). Together, these findings suggest that the rejection–aggression link is driven, in part, by the desire to return to affective homeostasis. Additionally, these findings implicate aggression’s rewarding nature as an incentive for rejected individuals’ violent tendencies.
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Kevin Beaver, J.C. Barnes & Brian Boutwell
Youth & Society, November 2016, Pages 786-809
Abstract:
The current study examined the association between playing high school football and involvement in violent behaviors in sibling pairs drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). The analysis revealed that youth who played high school football self-reported more violence than those youth who did not play football. Quantitative genetic analyses revealed that 85% of the variance in football participation was the result of genetic factors and 62% of the variance in violent behavior was due to genetic factors. Additional analyses indicated that 54% of the covariance between football participation and violence was due to genetics and 46% was the result of nonshared environmental influences. However, even after controlling for genetic influences, participation in football appeared to increase violent behavior.
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Carlos Cueva et al.
Hormones and Behavior, January 2017, Pages 1–7
Abstract:
Correlative evidence suggests that testosterone promotes dominance and aggression. However, causal evidence is scarce and offers mixed results. To investigate this relationship, we administered testosterone for 48 h to 41 healthy young adult men in a within-subjects, double-blind placebo-controlled balanced crossover design. Subjects played the role of responders in an ultimatum game, where rejecting a low offer is costly, but serves to destroy the proposer's profit. Such action can hence be interpreted as non-physical aggression in response to social provocation. In addition, subjects completed a self-assessed mood questionnaire. As expected, self-reported aggressiveness was a key predictor of ultimatum game rejections. However, while testosterone affected subjective ratings of feeling energetic and interested, our evidence strongly suggests that testosterone had no effect on ultimatum game rejections or on aggressive mood. Our findings illustrate the importance of using causal interventions to assess correlative evidence.
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Preliminary evidence that testosterone's association with aggression depends on self-construal
Keith Welker et al.
Hormones and Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Previous research and theory suggest testosterone is an important hormone for modulating aggression and self-regulation. We propose that self-construal, a culturally-relevant difference in how individuals define the self in relation to others, may be an important moderator of the relationship between testosterone and behaviors linked to aggression. Within two studies (Study 1 N = 80; Study 2 N = 237) and an integrated data analysis, we find evidence suggesting that acute testosterone changes in men are positively associated with aggressive behavior for those with more independent self-construals, whereas basal testosterone is negatively associated with aggression when individuals have more interdependent self-construals. Although preliminary, these findings suggest that self-construal moderates the association between testosterone and aggression, thereby paving the way toward future work examining the potential cultural moderation of the behavioral effects of testosterone.
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Effects of Violent Media on Verbal Task Performance in Gifted and General Cohort Children
Yakup Çetin et al.
Gifted Child Quarterly, October 2016, Pages 279-286
Abstract:
Violent media immediately grab our attention. However, violent media also detract attention from other cues. A large body of research shows that violent media impair attention and memory, critical resources for academic performance, such as verbal tasks at school. The present study tested whether gifted children are more insulated or more vulnerable to these violent media effects. Gifted (n = 74) and general cohort (n = 80) 10-year-old children were randomly assigned to watch a 12-minute violent or nonviolent cartoon. A verbal task was completed before and after the video. Results showed that gifted children outperformed general cohort children on the verbal task after watching a nonviolent cartoon, but not after watching a violent cartoon. Thus, the violent video eliminated the typical advantage gifted children have on verbal tasks. These findings suggest that the harmful effects of violent media on verbal tasks are greater for gifted children than for general cohort children.