The Effect of Fear on the Aggressive Responses of Anger Aroused and Revenge Motivated Subjects

In a 3 x 2 between Ss design employing 54 male college students, one group of Ss was given neutral feedback by a confederate, and another group was insulted by a C, and it was speculated that anger might serve as a disinhibitor of responses suppressed by fear.

Abstract

In a 3 x 2 between Ss design employing 54 male college students, one group of Ss was given neutral feedback (neutral condition) by a confederate (C), and another group was insulted by a C (anger condition). Both of these groups were given an immediate opportunity to aggress against a second C. A third group was insulted by one C and given the opportunity to aggress against that same C one day later (revenge condition). Ss were also told that the target either would or would not have the opportunity to retaliate (fear and no fear conditions). Fear significantly depressed aggression only in the revenge condition, and the revenge condition was the only feedback condition in which the level of aggressiveness was above that of the neutral condition (p less than .05). It was speculated that anger might serve as a disinhibitor of responses suppressed by fear.