Retarding the Escalation of Aggression

Abstract

Three experiments examined the inhibition of escalation of aggression. Subjects either punished incorrect or rewarded correct responses made by a confederate on a learning task. In Experiment 1, some subjects were interrupted midway through the learning trials, and some of the interrupted subjects coded their responses up to that point. The interruption and coding had no effect on escalation of reinforcement intensity over trials. In Experiment 2, half the subjects were individuated and half were de-individuated. Hall of each group expected to meet the “victim” following the trials and half did not. Neither variable impeded escalation. In Experiment 3, half the subjects were provided with a “hot-line” that could be used to summon the experimenter. Some subjects were also videotaped during the experiment. The presence of the hot-line reduced the overall intensity of aggression relative to the no hot-line group.

Behavioral and functional connectivity basis for peer-influenced bystander participation in bullying

“…It may be argued that the strong balls we adopted here are insufficiently aversive to be comparable with real-life bullying. However, it is reported that aggression often begins at a low level, such as teasing or cursing, and escalates to more injurious behavior (Taylor et al , 1979; Goldstein et al , 1981). Therefore, we think that this task is appropriate for investigating the early stage of bullying.…”

The Social Psychology of Sport

“…While escalation effects may begin over petty issues, the final level of hostilities is out of all proportion to the magnitude of the original provocation (J.H. Goldstein, Davis, & Herman, 1975;J.H. Goldstein, Davis, Kernis, & Cohn, 1981).…”

“…A number of plausible suggestions for halting the upward spiral of interpersonal exchanges have been tested (J.H. Goldstein, Davis, Kernis, & Cohn, 1981). The results are not encouraging.…”

A practical test of the link between perceived identifiability and prosociality with two field studies

“…Despite these early findings, several other findings found no evidence of the deindividuation state 35 , 36 and a meta-analysis conducted by Postmes and Spears 37 of sixty empirical studies showed little support for the existence of the deindividuation phenomenon. Furthermore, early studies focused more on anti-normative behaviors in the form of increased antisocial behaviors and showed little evidence that it would lead to decreased prosocial behaviors.…”