Citation

Wilkowski BM, Leki EL. Aggressive Behav. 2019; 45(5): 537-549.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, International Society for Research on Aggression, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/ab.21842

PMID

31119758

Abstract

Past studies indicate that angry facial expressions automatically activate an aggressive response, seeming to support the view that humans possess an inborn, automatic tendencies to aggress. However, the current authors drew on influential models from evolutionary game theory to suggest that experiences of defeat may modulate this tendency. To examine this, four experiments were conducted to explore how defeat may modulate this aggressive response. In each study, participants executed simulated fight or flight responses based a computerized opponent's facial expression. Across studies, participants were typically faster to initiate fight (than flight) responses against an angry opponent. Simply losing simulated fights (Experiment 1) or experiencing aversive, white noise following simulated losses (Experiment 2) did not eliminate this tendency. However, when aversive noise was specifically experienced after losing to an angry opponent, the automatic aggressive response was eliminated (Experiment 3). This result was directly replicated (Experiment 4). Thus, these studies isolate the cues which automatize submissive behavior and show that fighting experience can modulate even our automatic aggressive responses to others' anger displays.

© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Language: en

Keywords

aggression; anger; automaticity; facial expressions; submission