Temperature and aggression

The Social Psychology of Aggression

“…Social psychologists have identified a variety of situational factors that promote aggressive behavior. Provocation, exposure to weapons, hot temperatures, unpleasant odors, loud noises, violent media, and physical pain represent a few examples of situational factors shown to increase aggression (Anderson et al, 1998(Anderson et al, , 2000Berkowitz, 1993;Bushman, 1998;Geen, 2001;Berkowitz & LePage, 1967;Berkowitz et al, 1981 narcissists do not show high levels of aggression in response to praise (Bushman & Baumeister, 1998). Similarly, exposure to hunting and assault weapons influences accessibility of hostile cognition and aggressive behavior differently according to whether people have developed knowledge structures through experience to certain kinds of weapons (e.g., hunters) relative to people who have less differentiated knowledge structures regarding different types of weapons (Bartholow, Carnagey, & Anderson, 2005).…”

The relationship between temperature and assault in New Zealand

“…A positive relationship between geographical variation in temperature and homicide rate was found across countries in two international studies (Robbins et al 1972;Rotton 1986). Anderson et al (2000) also that temperature was a significant predictor of violent crime (with murder, rape and assaults as indicators) across 260 US cities. This relationship had a standardised effect size of 0.43 when controlling for socio-economic status, population level, and sociocultural BSouthernness^.…”

“…Temporal variation in temperature can be broken down further into sub-components including seasonal and irregular (random) variation in temperature. In terms of seasonal variation in temperature, Anderson et al (2000) reported a comparison of assault rates across seven Northern Hemisphere datasets, finding that monthly assault rates were higher in warmer months: More than 40 % higher in the hot month of August than in the cold month of January. Hipp et al (2003) also found that violent crime rates in the United States were about 35 % higher at the summertime peak than at the winter nadir.…”

“…One method is to aggregate data (e.g., at the annual level), such that the effects of seasonal variation are removed. A series of studies using this approach and data from the United States found a positive relationship between temperature and violent crime (Anderson et al 1997(Anderson et al , 2000Anderson and DeLisi 2011;Rotton and Cohn 2003). Another way in which irregular variation in temperature can be examined is by using data at a finer temporal level of aggregation (e.g., by using days or even shorter intervals), but using temporal control variables (e.g., for the months of the year) to remove seasonal variation.…”

How and What do Videogames Teach?

“…One good example of this is the tendency for depressed people to recall more more negative information than they do positive information (Berry, 1997). Similarly, aversive stimuli like heat, which can create negative aff ect, can activate cognitive structures that lead to aggressive cognitions and behavior (Anderson, 1989;Anderson, Anderson, Dorr, DeNeve, & Flanagan, 2000;Berkowitz, 1990). Mood-dependent memory, on the other hand, is the phenomenon in which the retrieval of information is best when a person is in the same mood they were in when they learned that information (regardless of the aff ect of the information itself).…”