On strike
Violent Movies and Severe Acts of Violence: Sensationalism Versus Science
Patrick Markey, Juliana French & Charlotte Markey
Human Communication Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Violent media has often been blamed for severe violent acts. Following recent findings that violence in movies has increased substantially over the last few decades, this research examined whether such increases were related to trends in severe acts of violence. Annual rates of movie violence and gun violence in movies were compared to homicide and aggravated assault rates between the years of 1960 and 2012. Time series analyses found that violent films were negatively, although nonsignificantly, related to homicides and aggravated assaults. These nonsignificant negative relations remained present even after controlling for various extraneous variables. Results suggest that caution is warranted when generalizing violent media research, conducted primarily in laboratories and via questionnaires, to societal trends in violent behavior.
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Hexuan Liu, Yi Li & Guang Guo
Social Forces, forthcoming
Abstract:
Complex human traits are likely to be affected by many environmental and genetic factors, and the interactions among them. However, previous gene-environment interaction (G × E) studies have typically focused on one or only a few genetic variants at a time. To provide a broader view of G × E, this study examines the relationship between 403 genetic variants from 39 genes and youth delinquency and violence. We find evidence that low social control is associated with greater genetic risk for delinquency and violence and high/moderate social control with smaller genetic risk for delinquency and violence. Our findings are consistent with prior G × E studies based on a small number of genetic variants, and more importantly, we show that these findings still hold when a large number of genetic variants are considered simultaneously. A key implication of these findings is that the expression of multiple genes related to delinquency depends on the social environment: gene expression is likely to be amplified in low-social-control environments but tends to be suppressed in high/moderate-social-control environments. This study not only deepens our understanding of how the social environment shapes individual behavior, but also provides important conceptual and methodological insights for future G × E research on complex human traits.
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The Role of Neighborhood Income Inequality in Adolescent Aggression and Violence
Roman Pabayo, Beth Molnar & Ichiro Kawachi
Journal of Adolescent Health, October 2014, Pages 571–579
Purpose: Being a perpetrator or victim of assaults can have detrimental effects on the development and health of adolescents. Area-level income inequality has been suggested to be associated with crime and aggressive behavior. However, most prior research on this association has been ecological. Therefore, the purpose of this investigation was to describe the association between neighborhood-level income inequality and aggression and violence outcomes.
Methods: Data were collected from a sample of 1,878 adolescents living in 38 neighborhoods participating in the 2008 Boston Youth Survey. We used multilevel logistic regression models to estimate the association between neighborhood income inequality and attacking someone with a weapon, being attacked by someone with a weapon, being physically assaulted, being shown a gun by someone in the neighborhood, shot at by someone in the neighborhood, witnessing someone getting murdered in the past year, and having a close family member or friend murdered. Race and income inequality cross-level interactions were tested. Analyses were stratified by sex.
Results: Among nonblack boys, after adjusting for nativity, age, neighborhood-level income, crime, disorder, and proportion of the neighborhood that is black, income inequality was associated with an increased risk for committing acts of aggression and being a victim of violence. Among nonblack girls, those living in neighborhoods with high-income inequality were more likely to witness someone die a violent death in the previous year, in comparison to those in more equal neighborhoods.
Conclusions: Income inequality appears to be related to aggression and victimization outcomes among nonblack adolescents living in Boston.
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Spite and cognitive skills in preschoolers
Elisabeth Bügelmayer & Katharina Spiess
Journal of Economic Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Other-regarding preferences in adults have been examined in depth in the literature. Research has shown that spiteful preferences play a crucial role in the development of human large-scale cooperation. However, there is little evidence of the factors explaining spiteful behavior in children. We investigate the relationship between children’s cognitive skills and spiteful behavior in a sample of 214 preschoolers aged 5-6 and their mothers. Here, other-regarding behavior in children is elicited through four simple allocation decisions. A key advantage of our study is that we have information about children’s cognitive and non-cognitive skills and health as well as maternal and household characteristics. We find that higher cognitive skills are associated with more spiteful behavior in children. This relationship is even more pronounced among boys. Moreover, we find further gender differences that depend on the measure of cognitive skills and the degree of spite displayed.
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Sarah Ainsworth & Jon Maner
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
Throughout history, men have tended to be more violent than women. Evolutionary theories suggest that this sex difference derives in part from their historically greater need to compete with other men over access to potential mates. In the current research, men and women (Experiment 1) or men only (Experiments 2 and 3) underwent a mating motive prime or control prime, and then performed a task designed to measure aggression toward a same-sex partner. The mating prime increased aggression among men, but not women (Experiment 1). Furthermore, mating-related increases in aggression were directed only toward men who were depicted as viable intrasexual rivals, including a dominant (vs. non-dominant) male partner (Experiment 2) and a man who was depicted as single (versus married) and looking for a mate (Experiment 3). This research provides a picture of male intrasexual aggression as highly selective and aimed strategically at asserting one’s dominance over sexual rivals.
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John Velez et al.
Communication Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Numerous studies have shown that playing violent video games alone increases subsequent aggression. However, social game play is becoming more popular than solo game play, and research suggests cooperative game play is beneficial for players. The current studies explore the effects of cooperative game play on player’s subsequent aggressive behaviors toward video game partners (Experiment 1) and non-video game partners (Experiment 2), while providing a discussion of possible theories applicable to social video game play. Cooperative games resulted in less aggression between video game partners (Experiment 1) and between non-video game partners (Experiment 2) than did competitive or stand-alone games. Interestingly, cooperative game play and no-game play produced similar levels of aggression (Experiment 1), whereas competitive and solo game play produced similar levels of aggression (Experiment 2). These findings are consistent with the theory of bounded generalized reciprocity. Playing violent games cooperatively can offset the aggression-increasing effects of violent video games.
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Morgan Tear & Mark Nielsen
Computers in Human Behavior, December 2014, Pages 8–13
Abstract:
Experimental evidence has pointed toward a negative effect of violent video games on social behavior. Given that the availability and presence of video games is pervasive, negative effects from playing them have potentially large implications for public policy. It is, therefore, important that violent video game effects are thoroughly and experimentally explored, with the current experiment focusing on prosocial behavior. 120 undergraduate volunteers (Mage = 19.01, 87.5% male) played an ultra-violent, violent, or non-violent video game and were then assessed on two distinct measures of prosocial behavior: how much they donated to a charity and how difficult they set a task for an ostensible participant. It was hypothesized that participants playing the ultra-violent games would show the least prosocial behavior and those playing the non-violent game would show the most. These hypotheses were not supported, with participants responding in similar ways, regardless of the type of game played. While null effects are difficult to interpret, samples of this nature (undergraduate volunteers, high male skew) may be problematic, and participants were possibly sensitive to the hypothesis at some level, this experiment adds to the growing body of evidence suggesting that violent video game effects are less clear than initially thought.
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Eric Hehman, Jordan Leitner & Jonathan Freeman
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
Aging influences how a person is perceived on multiple dimensions (e.g., physical power). Here we examined how facial structure informs these evolving social perceptions. Recent work examining young adults’ faces has revealed the impact of the facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR) on perceived traits, such that individuals with taller, thinner faces are perceived to be less aggressive, less physically powerful, and friendlier. These perceptions are similar to those stereotypically associated with older adults. Examining whether fWHR might contribute to these changing perceptions over the life span, we found that age provides a shifting context through which fWHR differentially impacts aging-related social perceptions (Study 1). In addition, archival analyses (Study 2) established that fWHR decreases across age, and a subsequent study found that fWHR mediated the relationship between target age and multiple aging-related perceptions (Study 3). The findings provide evidence that fWHR decreases across age and influences stereotypical perceptions that change with age.
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Adulthood Animal Abuse Among Men Arrested for Domestic Violence
Jeniimarie Febres et al.
Violence Against Women, September 2014, Pages 1059-1077
Abstract:
Learning more about intimate partner violence (IPV), perpetrators could aid the development of more effective treatments. The prevalence of adulthood animal abuse (AAA) perpetration and its association with IPV perpetration, antisociality, and alcohol use in 307 men arrested for domestic violence were examined. Forty-one percent (n = 125) of the men committed at least one act of animal abuse since the age of 18, in contrast to the 1.5% prevalence rate reported by men in the general population. Controlling for antisociality and alcohol use, AAA showed a trend toward a significant association with physical and severe psychological IPV perpetration.
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Christina Sagioglou & Tobias Greitemeyer
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
The present research tested the novel hypothesis that bitter taste increases hostility. Theoretical background formed the intimate link of the taste-sensory system to the visceral system, with bitter intake typically eliciting a strong aversion response. Three experiments using differential bitter and control stimuli showed that hostile affect and behavior is increased by bitter taste experiences. Specifically, participants who consumed a bitter (vs. control) drink showed an increase in self-reported current hostility (Experiment 1), in hypothetical aggressive affect and hypothetical aggressive behavior (Experiment 2) and in actual hostile behavior assessed using a well-established method for non-physical laboratory aggression (Experiment 3). Furthermore, the effect occurred not only when participants were previously provoked (Experiments 2 and 3) but also when no provocation preceded (Experiment 1 and 3). Importantly, stimulus aversiveness and intensity did not influence the effects observed, ruling them out as explanations. Alternative interpretative frameworks and limitations are discussed.
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Alan Traclet et al.
Aggressive Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
The aim of the present study was to verify that the level of tolerance for aggression is higher in a collective context than in an individual context (polarization effect), and to test the association between moral disengagement, team and self-attitudes toward aggression, and tolerance and realization of aggressive acts in Swiss male soccer and ice hockey. In individual or collective answering conditions, 104 soccer and 98 ice hockey players viewed videotaped aggressive acts and completed a questionnaire, including measures of the perceived legitimacy of videotaped aggression, of the teammates, coach, and self attitudes toward transgressions (modified TNQ), of the moral disengagement in sport (modified MDSS-S), and of self-reported aggressive behavior. A multilevel analysis confirmed a strong polarization effect on the perception of instrumental aggression, the videotaped aggressive acts appearing more tolerated in the collective than in the individual answering condition. Using a structural equation modeling, we found that the moral disengagement, which mediates the effects of perceived coach and ego attitudes toward transgressions, correlates positively with the tolerance of hostile aggression within teams, and with the level of aggressive acts reported by the participants.