Observer-model similarity in the contagion of aggression

Wheeler, Ladd; Levine, Lewis

doi:10.1037/e479892008-001

Cited by 11 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…This could be the case for several reasons. First, shared opinions from someone of dissimilar background should be relatively unexpected (Goethals & Darley, 1977;Orive, 1988;Wheeler & Levine, 1967), and to the extent that unexpected information tends to capture more attention than expected information (Henderson & Hollingworth, 1998;Meyer, Niepel, Rudolph, & Schuetzwohl, 1991;Schuetzwohl, 1998), it might thereby have had more impact.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Beyond possible attention differences, a social comparison perspective would suggest that having similar opinions to someone of different general background provides an especially strong validation of the correctness of those opinions; the greatest opinion validation from a single source may come from agreement with others of dissimilar general background, because it connotes relatively wide acceptance (and correctness) of one's views (Goethals & Darley, 1977;Jones & Gerard, 1967;Orive, 1988;Suls et al, 2000;Wheeler & Levine, 1967). If so, a person may be especially likely to try to continue to see the world as such individuals do, not only (or perhaps even not principally) because he or she likes these individuals more, but in order to maintain the relatively high level of validation for his or her own opinions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Positive and Negative Opinion Modeling: The Influence of Another's Similarity and Dissimilarity.

Hilmert¹,

Kulik²,

Christenfeld³

2006

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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Modeling research that has focused on the effects of observing similar others appears to have underestimated the influence of observing dissimilar others. Two experiments demonstrated that observing a model express liking for a piece of music induced more favorable opinions of the music (positive modeling) when the model was similar to the participant observer in relevant opinions, and more negative opinions (negative modeling) when the model was dissimilar to the participant in relevant opinions. Of note, this pattern was more pronounced when participants also believed their general backgrounds were dissimilar rather than similar to that of the model. Underlying social comparison processes and the mediational role of participants' liking of the model are considered.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Positive and Negative Opinion Modeling: The Influence of Another's Similarity and Dissimilarity.

Hilmert¹,

Kulik²,

Christenfeld³

2006

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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“…Agonistic social contagion has been documented in humans [Wheeler & Caggiula, 1966;Wheeler & Levine, 1967;Wheeler & Smith, 1967] and nonhuman primates in anecdotal reports [Anderson et al, 2004;Kummer, 1967;Ghiglieri, 1984;Goodall, 1986]. Goodall [1986] noted that in chimpanzees, an individual observing a fight may be stimulated to engage in aggressive behavior.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neighbor effect: evidence of affiliative and agonistic social contagion in captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Videan

Fritz

Schwandt

et al. 2005

American J Primatol

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Previous studies of captive chimpanzees have demonstrated the "neighbor effect," or social contagion, with respect to agonistic vocalizations and behaviors. The present study considers whether there is a relationship between behavior patterns in focal animals and the auditory signals of neighboring social groups. Using focal-group sampling, we collected 172.5 hr of data on 51 subjects (25 females and 26 males) housed in 10 social groups. We performed two-tailed Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank tests to determine whether the relative frequency of the vocalizations (high vs. low) affected the behaviors. In keeping with past research, we found that agonistic noises and vocalizations from neighboring social groups had a significant effect on the rates of focal-group bluff displays, pant-hoots, and aggression (P<0.05). In addition, we also found significant relationships between grooming behavior and vocalizations in focal groups, and grooming vocalizations from neighboring groups (P<0.05). The results suggest that social contagion is not limited to aggressive behaviors, but also occurs for affiliative behavior patterns.

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“…One function of the morally justified violence which the subject then observed may have been the disinhibition of aggressive acts which he was motivated to commit. Such an interpretation is also suggested by studies conducted by Wheeler and his associates (Wheeler and Caggiula, 1966;Wheeler and Levine, 1967;Wheeler and Smith, 1968), in connection with their theory of behavioral contagion. According to this theory, when an individual is instigated to make a response but fails to make it because of inhibitions arising within the situation, he may become disinhibited by observing a similarly motivated person carry out the same response.…”

Section: Justification For Observed Aggressionmentioning

confidence: 54%

Some Implications of Experimental Social Psychology for the Study of Urban Disorders

Geen

1971

The Sociological Quarterly

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WHENEVER AN URBAN disorder breaks out, numerous explanations are offered for the cause of the trouble. Some theories are extremely unitary and parsimonious: the rioter is basically "criminal" and loves to destroy property, or he riots to cover basically larcenous motives, or he is a pawn in the hands of outside agitators sent by Peking, Moscow, or (in the minds of some midwesterners), New York. Other explanations are more sophisticated: the trouble lies in poor housing, job discrimination and inferior schools for black children; or, the black, seeing an affluent America all around him, feels "relatively deprived" even though his own lot may be slightly better than it formerly was (Merton and Kitt, 1950). Another explanation points out that the progress made over the past ten years in removing inequalities has led to a sense of rising expectations in the ghetto, so that failure to make continuing rapid progress toward equality is perceived as an intolerable frustration (Davirs, 1969).Each of these latter commonly held points of view implies that deprivations and injustice produce a sense of frustration which ultimately boils over into riot, and all of these ideas are related to a principle long known to psychology: that frustrations produce a build-up of tensions within individuals which may eventuate in aggression and violence. The idea, which is essentially "hydraulic" in its approach to human motivation in that it views motives as building up like water pressure, is stated in its simplest form in the works of certain neo-Frcudians (Hartmann et al., 1949) and in the frustration-aggression hypothesis of Dollard and his colleagues (Dollard et al., 1939). While having the advantage of parsimony, this principle has not been a generally good predictor of human behavior in controlled experimental settings (Kaufman, 1970) and has, in its simplest form, been largely abandoned by researchers. However, some investigators ( e.g., Berkowitz, 1969) have been reluctant to give up the frustration-aggression hypothesis entirely and have revised it and specified the intervening variables in the relationship.Although the frustration-aggression hypothesis may still have much to say on the origins of human aggression, the approach taken in this paper will be that it is not a satisfactory single explanation. As we shall see, research has uncovered some subtle and complex variables in the process, one of the more important being the presence within the situation of stimuli having some relation to aggression. The hypotheses which have guided the research to be reviewed and those which have developed as a result of it are, for the most part, untested in the "real world." They are the product of the psychological laboratory, where evi-

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Observer-model similarity in the contagion of aggression

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

Positive and Negative Opinion Modeling: The Influence of Another's Similarity and Dissimilarity.

Positive and Negative Opinion Modeling: The Influence of Another's Similarity and Dissimilarity.

Neighbor effect: evidence of affiliative and agonistic social contagion in captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Some Implications of Experimental Social Psychology for the Study of Urban Disorders

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