Citation

Archer J, Holloway R, McLoughlin K. Aggressive Behav. 1995; 21(5): 325-342.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1995, International Society for Research on Aggression, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article describes two studies involving a questionnaire asking about the circumstances, antecedents, and consequences of the most recent fight among samples of young men (100 students in Study I; 88 students and 87 unemployed men in Study II). In Study I, the students also completed a standard aggression questionnaire and one concerning masculine values to assess whether measures of physical aggressiveness were associated with traditional masculine role norms. There was a weak association with physical aggressiveness but not with reported fights. Students with traditionally masculine interests did report more fights. In Study II, both subsamples showed significant correlations between a masculine role subscale involving toughness and measures of fight occurrence and recency and physical aggression. The findings from this study were primarily assessed in relation to hypotheses derived from Darwinian sexual selection theory: that fights between young men are likely to arise from threats to personal integrity and status, women, and resources; that fights will be more related to social status and be more damaging among the unemployed men than the students. In line with these predictions, insults were a potent cause of fights in both samples, but public humiliation was a more common reason among the unemployed men. Money or property was more often a reason for fighting among the unemployed men, and there were indications that their fights were more damaging. Unemployed men also showed higher levels of anger and physical aggression (but not verbal aggression) on a standard aggression questionnaire. Other differences included the location of the fight, but there were no significant differences between the two samples in whether or not a fight had occurred in the last 5 years.