@article{ref1,
title="Peer contagion of aggression and health risk behavior among adolescent males: an experimental investigation of effects on public conduct and private attitudes",
journal="Child development",
year="2006",
author="Cohen, Geoffrey L. and Prinstein, Mitchell J.",
volume="77",
number="4",
pages="967-983",
abstract="Peer contagion of adolescent males' aggressive/health risk behaviors was examined using a computerized &quot;chat room&quot; experimental paradigm. Forty-three 11th-grade White adolescents (16-17 years old) were led to believe that they were interacting with other students (i.e., &quot;e-confederates&quot;), who endorsed aggressive/health risk behaviors and whose ostensible peer status was experimentally manipulated. Adolescents displayed greater public conformity, more internalization of aggressive/health risk attitudes, and a higher frequency of actual exclusionary behavior when the e-confederates were high in peer status than low. Participants' level of social anxiety moderated peer contagion. Nonsocially anxious participants conformed only to high-status peers, whereas socially anxious participants were equally influenced by low- and high-status peers. The role of status-maintenance motivations in aggression and risk behavior, and implications for preventive intervention, are discussed.<p /><p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0009-3920",
doi="10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00913.x",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00913.x"
}