Meanies
Changing climates of conflict: A social network experiment in 56 schools
Elizabeth Levy Paluck, Hana Shepherd & Peter Aronow
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 19 January 2016, Pages 566–571
Abstract:
Theories of human behavior suggest that individuals attend to the behavior of certain people in their community to understand what is socially normative and adjust their own behavior in response. An experiment tested these theories by randomizing an anticonflict intervention across 56 schools with 24,191 students. After comprehensively measuring every school’s social network, randomly selected seed groups of 20–32 students from randomly selected schools were assigned to an intervention that encouraged their public stance against conflict at school. Compared with control schools, disciplinary reports of student conflict at treatment schools were reduced by 30% over 1 year. The effect was stronger when the seed group contained more “social referent” students who, as network measures reveal, attract more student attention. Network analyses of peer-to-peer influence show that social referents spread perceptions of conflict as less socially normative.
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Soccer players awarded one or more red cards exhibit lower 2D:4D ratios
Alvaro Mailhos et al.
Aggressive Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Anatomical, cognitive and behavioral sex differences are widely recognized in many species. It has been proposed that some of these differences might result from the organizing effects of prenatal sex steroids. In humans, males usually exhibit higher levels of physical aggression and prowess. In this study, we analyze the relationship between second-to-fourth digit (2D:4D) ratios — a proxy for prenatal androgen levels — and foul play and sporting performance in a sample of junior soccer players from a professional Uruguayan soccer club. Our results show that the most aggressive players (i.e., those awarded one or more red cards) have a more masculine finger pattern (lower 2D:4D ratio), while no relationship could be found between sporting performance and 2D:4D ratios. The results are discussed in the context of previous findings.
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A pedestrian's smile and drivers' behavior: When a smile increases careful driving
Nicolas Guéguen, Chloé Eyssartier & Sébastien Meineri
Journal of Safety Research, February 2016, Pages 83–88
Method: This study attempts to evaluate how a pedestrian's smile influences an oncoming driver's behavior. In the first part of our study, male and female research assistants waiting at several pedestrian crossings were asked to smile or not at oncoming drivers.
Results: It was found that a smile increases the number of drivers who stop. The same effect was observed when the pedestrian tries to cross outside the pedestrian crossing. Finally, this study shows that motorists drive slower after they see a pedestrian smile, suggesting that a smile can induce a positive mood.
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Conflict Exposure and Competitiveness: Experimental Evidence from the Football Field in Sierra Leone
Francesco Cecchi, Koen Leuveld & Maarten Voors
Economic Development and Cultural Change, forthcoming
Abstract:
We use data from a street football tournament and a series of lab-in-field experiments in postconflict Sierra Leone to examine the impact of exposure to conflict violence on competitive behavior. We find that football players who experienced more intense exposure to violence are more likely to get a foul card during a game. In the lab we find that these individuals are significantly less risk averse and more altruistic toward their in-group (teammates). We then isolate competitiveness from aggressiveness and find that conflict exposure increases the willingness to compete toward the out-group. These results are in line with theory highlighting the role of intergroup conflict in increasing in-group cooperation while exacerbating out-group antagonism. Next to other-regarding preferences and risk propensity, changes in individual preferences for competition may affect long-run development trajectories and postconflict recovery.
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Dressed to kill? Visible markers of coalitional affiliation enhance conceptualized formidability
Daniel Fessler, Colin Holbrook & David Dashoff
Aggressive Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Displaying markers of coalitional affiliation is a common feature of contemporary life. In situations in which interaction with members of rival coalitions is likely, signaling coalitional affiliation may simultaneously constitute an implicit challenge to opponents and an objective commitment device, binding signalers to their coalitions. Individuals who invite conflict, and who cannot readily back out of conflict, constitute a greater threat than those who avoid conflict and preserve the option of feigning neutrality. As a consequence, the former should be viewed as more formidable than the latter. Recent research indicates that relative formidability is summarized using the envisioned physical size and strength of a potential antagonist. Thus, individuals who display markers of coalitional affiliation should be conceptualized as more physically imposing than those who do not. We tested this prediction in two experiments. In Study 1, conducted with U.S. university students, participants inspected images of sports fans' faces. In Study 2, conducted with U.S. Mechanical Turk workers, participants read vignettes depicting political partisans. In both studies, participants estimated the physical formidability of the target individuals and reported their own ability to defend themselves; in Study 2, participants estimated the target's aggressiveness. Consonant with predictions, targets depicted as signaling coalitional affiliation in situations of potential conflict were envisioned to be more physically formidable and more aggressive than were those not depicted as signaling thusly. Underscoring that the calculations at issue concern the possibility of violent conflict, participants' estimates of the protagonist's features were inversely correlated with their ability to defend themselves.
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Jeffrey Osgood & Mark Muraven
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, February 2016, Pages 105–113
Abstract:
In this investigation, we experimentally test the interaction of ego-depletion (low state self-control), consequences, and decision-making time on aggressive responses to an insult from a confederate. The results indicate that ego-depleted participants respond more quickly and aggressively to an insult from a confederate. However, when a 30- second decision-making delay is imposed, ego-depleted participants reduce their aggression, but only if there are external consequences to being aggressive. In the absence of such consequences, ego-depleted participants become more aggressive following a delay. Additionally, if a distracting cognitive load disrupts the 30- second delay, aggression levels do not change significantly, even if there are consequences. These results suggest people respond to aggressive triggers more impulsively when ego-depleted.