Human aggression in everyday life: An empirical test of the general aggression model.

With the general aggression model (GAM), Anderson and Bushman (2002) provided an integrative framework to explain the complex nature of aggression. Based on the GAM, we examined whether personological and situational factors (interactively) have an impact on the person's internal state (consisting of aggressive cognition, affect, and physiological arousal), which in turn is assumed to lead to aggressive behaviour. In a large-scale experience sampling study, 403 participants answered 7558 questionnaires over a period of 2 weeks. As hypothesized, participants were more likely to exhibit an aggressive internal state the higher they scored on antagonistic personality traits (trait aggression, narcissism, psychopathy, sadism, anger rumination) and the more interpersonal, intrapersonal, and environmental triggers they experienced. Aggressive behaviour was positively related to trait aggression, psychopathy, sadism, anger rumination, and all situational triggers. Furthermore, the impact of antagonistic personality traits and situational triggers on aggressive behaviour was considerably reduced when the aggressive internal state was taken into account. Contrary to predictions, the relationship between antagonistic personality traits and the aggressive internal state was most pronounced when situational triggers were low. Overall, however, the process by which personal and situational variables predict aggression in daily life can be well explained by the GAM.

HEXACO, the Dark Triad, and Chat GPT: Who is willing to commit academic cheating?

The rise in popularity of Chat GPT, an advanced language model that uses deep learning techniques to simulate human-like conversation, has raised concerns about its potential misuse, particularly in academic contexts. The present study (N = 283) explored the relationship between personality traits and the intention to use chatbot-generated texts for academic cheating. Among the HEXACO and Dark Triad traits, Honesty-Humility, Conscientiousness, Openness to Experience (all negative), Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy (all positive) were significant predictor variables. A multiple regression analysis showed that Honesty-Humility had the most robust association with the intention to use chatbot-generated texts for academic cheating. Further analyses on the facet level revealed that the fairness facet of Honesty-Humility was the most predictive, suggesting that individuals high in Honesty-Humility refrain from using chatbot-generated texts for academic cheating as they prioritize fairness over their own interests. Promoting Honesty-Humility and its fairness facet can be a valuable approach to promoting ethical behavior in academic and other contexts.

Perceiving intraorganizational mobility ameliorates the effects of low-level position on detrimental workplace attitudes and behaviors.

How do the perceived chances to get a better position in a company affect how individuals feel and behave towards their employer? Confirming the theory of relative deprivation, recent research showed that social mobility belief has attenuating effects on anger about one's relative social standing. When an individual believes they can change their current social status, negative affect about one's disadvantaged standing is appeased compared to when people believe the present hierarchy is fixed. We tested this model in a workplace context, examining whether perceived intraorganizational mobility ameliorates the effects of a low position at work on negative workplace attitudes (Study 1) and behavior (Study 2). Study 1 (n = 498) found that indeed, perceiving chances of promotion weakened the association of position at work with hostile affect towards the employer. Expanding this model to provide a direct test of the theory of relative deprivation, we designed a moderated mediation model testing whether the effect of workplace position on counterproductive work behaviors was mediated by relative deprivation, and whether this indirect effect was moderated by perceived chances of promotion. As hypothesized, Study 2 (n = 408) found that perceiving chances of promotion attenuated the detrimental effect of workplace position via relative deprivation on counterproductive work behaviors. Effects in both studies occurred independently of company hierarchy, salary, educational attainment, sex, and job sector. Overall, the results suggest that perceiving potential for individual promotion is linked to lower levels of negative workplace attitudes and counterproductive work behaviors.

Spillover and crossover effects of exposure to work-related aggression and adversities: A dyadic diary study.

The past two decades have produced extensive evidence on the manifold and severe outcomes for victims of aggression exposure in the workplace. However, due to the dominating individual-centered approach, most findings miss a social network perspective. Consequently, knowledge of negative spillover to different life-domains or crossover to uninvolved individuals alongside a detailed understanding of the involved transmission processes remains scarce. By integrating social aggression theorizing, the present study investigated transmission routes (emphatic, behavioral) of experienced adversities and aggression at work toward perpetration of aggressive behavior and potential spillover and crossover effects into the private life domain in a diary study of 72 mixed dyads. Analyses of mediation based upon the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model revealed an association between the frequency of perpetrating aggressive behavior in the work context and a spillover into the private life domain via aggression-promoting internal states (emotions, cognitions, arousal). Based on the different patterns of mediation, it appears that adversities follow a mental transmission process, whereby experienced aggression displayed behavioral assimilation. In contrast, no crossover effects of exposure to adversities or aggression at work to a study partner at home could be detected. Practical and theoretical implications as well as limitations and ideas for future work are discussed.

Dark personalities and general masochistic tendencies: Their relationships to giving and receiving sexualized pain.

Recent research has shown that a tendency to harm others goes hand in hand with a tendency to harm oneself. The present two studies further supported the notion that the joy of harming others and oneself has a common core by showing positive relationships between dark personality traits (particularly psychopathy) and sexual masochistic preferences and between general masochistic tendencies and sexual sadistic preferences. Despite the overlap between dark personality traits and general masochistic tendencies, they independently predicted the engagement in sexual sadomasochism. These relationships statistically held when controlling for the impact of basic personality (Study 1). Study 2 found that self-enhancement, openness to change, and low conservation values serve as motivators for a person's attraction to sexual sadomasochism and shed some light on the differences between sexual sadomasochism and the Dark Tetrad. Overall, people who score relatively high on dark personalities and masochism are particularly predisposed to engage in sexual sadomasochism, in both the dominant and the submissive roles.

A practical test of the link between perceived identifiability and prosociality with two field studies.

Covering the face with masks in public settings has been recommended since the start of the pandemic. Because faces provide information about identity, and that face masks hide a portion of the face, it is plausible to expect individuals who wear a mask to consider themselves less identifiable. Prior research suggests that perceived identifiability is positively related to prosocial behavior, and with two pre-registered field studies (total N = 5706) we provide a currently relevant and practical test of this relation. Our findings indicate that mask wearers and non-wearers display equivalent levels of helping behavior (Studies 1 and 2), although mask wearers have a lower level of perceived identifiability than those without a mask (Study 2). Overall, our findings suggest that claims that face masks are related to selfish behavior are not warranted, and that there is no practical link between perceived identifiability and prosocial behavior.

Going Green Is Exhausting for Dark Personalities but Beneficial for the Light Ones: An Experience Sampling Study That Examines the Subjectivity of Pro-environmental Behavior.

Study 1 examined how personality and attitudes are related to daily pro-environmental behavior (PEB) and whether these relationships are moderated by perceived behavioral costs and benefits. One hundred and seventy-eight participants responded to scales measuring the dark and light side of personality, as well as their pro-environmental attitude. Afterward, they were notified three times a day for 7 days in a row. Each time they reported their PEB that had occurred in the past four hours and indicated their behavioral costs and benefits. Multilevel analyses showed a positive relationship between the frequency of PEB and the light triad of personality and pro-environmental attitude, while the dark tetrad was negatively related to PEB. Unexpectedly, less environmentally aware participants reported to engage in PEB with higher costs and lower benefits than did pro-environmental participants. A second study (N = 159) suggests that less environmentally aware people do not actually engage in PEB with high costs and low benefits, but rather that they only perceive their behavior to be costly and of little benefit. Overall, our findings suggest that the way people perceive their daily PEB is not necessarily shared by others.

The dark and bright side of video game consumption: Effects of violent and prosocial video games.

Hundreds of studies have examined the interpersonal effects of video game consumption. This article provides a brief review of the relationship between violent and prosocial, respectively, video gaming and social behavior. Although some studies came to contradicting results, meta-analyses found that violent video game consumption increases aggression and decreases prosocial behavior, whereas prosocial video games have the opposite effects. Some evidence even suggests that video game consumption does not only influence the player, but also the player's social network. In terms of mediating mechanisms, cognitive and affective variables account for the effects of video game consumption on behavioral responses. Overall, whether video games have a negative or positive influence on others depends heavily on their content.

The dark side of sports: Personality, values, and athletic aggression.

The present research examined whether the Dark Tetrad facets-narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and everyday sadism-are predictive of engagement in athletic aggression. In Study 1, participants (N = 603) received a list of 46 sport activities and were asked to assess the level of aggressiveness of the sport activity they participate in most intensively. They also provided self-reports of the Dark Tetrad. As predicted, athletic aggression was positively related to all facets of the Dark Tetrad. Multiple regression analyses showed that psychopathy had the most robust association with the engagement in athletic aggression. Study 2 (N = 208) showed that differences in the endorsement of self-transcendence values (benevolence and universalism) accounted for the relationships between Machiavellianism and psychopathy and athletic aggression. As also predicted, most of the Dark Tetrad scales were positively related to self-enhancing values (achievement and power). However, because self-enhancing values were not related to athletic aggression, they did not account for the relationship between the Dark Tetrad and engagement in athletic aggression. Overall, it appears that people who score relatively high on antagonistic personality traits tend to care little about the well-being of other people and therefore have little hesitation in harming others in their sporting activities.

Prosocial modeling: person role models and the media.

Much of human learning comes from learning from others. In this article, I review empirical work on the extent to which prosocial behavior is inspired by exposure to prosocial models. In fact, witnessing a prosocial model in person leads to an increase in the future prosocial behavior of the observer. Other research has shown that exposure to media (TV, music, video games) with depictions of prosocial behavior can also lead to an increase in prosocial behavior. Theoretical explanations and underlying mechanisms of the prosocial modeling effect are discussed. As prosocial behavior seems to be contagious, exposure to prosocial models is an effective way to encourage positive social encounters.

Why do habitual violent video game players believe in the cathartic effects of violent video games? A misinterpretation of mood improvement as a reduction in aggressive feelings.

Previous research found that violent video game play leads to increased aggression, but many people (mainly habitual violent video game players) still believe that playing violent games releases aggressive feelings and in turn reduces aggressive behavior. Other research has shown that video game play can have a positive impact on the player's mood. Based on the General Aggression Model and mood management theory, we thus hypothesized that habitual violent video game players misinterpret their better mood after game play as a reduction of aggressive feelings and hence believe in the cathartic effects of violent video games. Two studies examined this reasoning in the player's natural habitat. Habitual video game players were surveyed multiple times for a period of 2 weeks before and after each gaming session. Results showed that playing video games improved the participant's mood, which in turn was positively associated with the belief in the cathartic effect of violent video game play. Importantly, this relation held when controlling for the player's actual level of aggressive feelings. Study 1 further showed that playing a violent game tended to lead to a higher level of reported aggressive feelings after playing. In contrast, in Study 2, level of reported aggressive feelings was not related to the violence of the game. Taken together, habitual violent video game players (erroneously) believe in the cathartic effects of violent video games, because they are in a better mood after playing.

Violent media use and aggression: Two longitudinal network studies.

Exposure to violent media has been widely linked to increased aggression. In the present research, we examined whether violent media exposure would be associated with increased aggression, which would then spread within social networks like a contagious disease. Two groups of first year psychology students completed a questionnaire three times over the course of a year, measuring their media exposure, aggression, personality, and social relations within the group. Cross-sectional analysis provided mixed results in regards to the link between violent media and aggression. Siena analysis found no evidence of homophily (i.e., participants were not more likely to be friends with others similar to themselves) nor of social influence (i.e., participant's behavior did not predict a change in their friends' behavior). However, given the relatively small sample sizes and the weak ties between participants, more work is needed to assess the spread of violent media effects.

Unattractive people are unaware of their (un)attractiveness.

Past research has shown that how people rate their physical attractiveness is only moderately correlated with how they are rated by others, suggesting that at least some people have little insight into their true level of attractiveness. The present research tests the hypothesis that unattractive people are not aware of their unattractiveness. In fact, six studies (overall N = 1,180) showed that unattractive participants considerably overestimated their attractiveness compared to ratings by strangers. In contrast, attractive participants were more accurate. If anything, they underestimated their attractiveness. It was also examined why unattractive people overestimate their attractiveness. As expected, unattractive participants differentiated less between attractive and unattractive stimulus persons than did attractive participants. They were also more likely than attractive participants to select unattractive stimulus persons to compare themselves to. However, these tendencies did not account for why unattractive participants overestimated their attractiveness, nor did affirming participant's self-worth. Limitations and avenues for future research are discussed.

Common, nonsexual masochistic preferences are positively associated with antisocial personality traits.

OBJECTIVE: Based on prior research linking masochism and antisocial behavior to sensation seeking, we hypothesized that masochistic and antisocial preferences are positively correlated. Besides sensation seeking, we tested whether disgust sensitivity (due to its inhibitory function) and shared social values (e.g., stimulation) accounted for the masochistic-antisocial link. We additionally examined the link in relation to broad personality factors. METHOD: Six online and laboratory studies (N = 2,999) with US-American and European samples. RESULTS: We consistently found positive correlations between masochistic enjoyment (e.g., enjoying the burn of spicy food, disgusting jokes, pounding heart, painful massage) and antisocial traits such as subclinical psychopathy, everyday sadism, and low Honesty-Humility. We observed behavioral correlations in that experienced pleasure of a painful event was positively related to causing another person to feel pain. Shared sensation seeking, low disgust sensitivity, and endorsement of social values such as social power, hedonism, and a stimulating life partially accounted for the masochistic-antisocial link. CONCLUSION: The extent to which a person enjoys threatening stimuli on the self is reliably related to how much a person enjoys and evokes others' suffering. Future research could explore the common core that underlies common masochistic and antisocial preferences beyond the mediators tested here.

The contagious impact of playing violent video games on aggression: Longitudinal evidence.

Meta-analyses have shown that violent video game play increases aggression in the player. The present research suggests that violent video game play also affects individuals with whom the player is connected. A longitudinal study (N = 980) asked participants to report on their amount of violent video game play and level of aggression as well as how they perceive their friends and examined the association between the participant's aggression and their friends' amount of violent video game play. As hypothesized, friends' amount of violent video game play at Time 1 was associated with the participant's aggression at Time 2 even when controlling for the impact of the participant's aggression at Time 1. Mediation analyses showed that friends' aggression at Time 1 accounted for the impact of friends' amount of violent video game play at Time 1 on the participant's aggression at Time 2. These findings suggest that increased aggression in video game players has an impact on the player's social network.

Fitness mobile apps positively affect attitudes, perceived behavioral control and physical activities.

BACKGROUND: Recent studies suggest that about 6 out of 10 users have installed a fitness tracking application on their smartphone. Nevertheless, more than 59% of adults do not engage in sufficient daily physical activity and much remains unknown with regard to the effectiveness of mobile applications. By adopting the Theory of Planned Behavior, we tested whether the use of fitness apps for daily steps tracking could positively influence people's health behavior. METHODS: Participants (N.=78) were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions; in one condition, they were asked to adopt a fitness app for two weeks. No information regarding mobile apps was given for participants in the control condition. In order to test the effects of using a fitness app, a series of two-way mixed ANOVAs were conducted. RESULTS: Participants in the experimental condition reported more favorable attitudes in the post-test compared to the pre-test, t(43)=4.09, P<0.001, d=0.65. By contrast, in the control condition, the difference on attitudes between pre-test and post-test was not significant (P=1.00). They also reported higher perceived behavioral control (PBC) scores, t(43) =4.97, P<0.001, d=0.75, whereas the difference on PBC for the control condition was not significant (P=0.27). Participants who used a fitness app reported to have walked more in the post-test compared to the pre-test, t(43) =2.41, P=0.02, d=0.36, whereas self-reported behavior did not change for participants in the control condition (P=0.46). CONCLUSIONS: The present study provides encouraging evidence for the positive effects of using a fitness-tracking app in promoting health behavior.

Belief in Social Mobility Mitigates Hostility Resulting From Disadvantaged Social Standing.

Comparing economically unfavorably with similar others has detrimental consequences for an individual, ultimately resulting in low physical health, delinquency, and hostility. In four studies ( N = 2,032), we examined whether believing in a mobile society-one offering fair chances and opportunity-mitigates hostile emotions resulting from disadvantaged social standing. We find that with increasing mobility belief, negative comparisons have gradually less impact on hostility. Specifically, measured (Studies 1 and 4) and manipulated (Studies 2 and 3) social mobility belief moderated the link between induced high versus low social status, experiencing relative deprivation, and hostile affect. A positive outcome on the surface, social mobility belief may indirectly contribute to the maintenance of social inequality by appeasing anger about perceived injustice.

Getting connected: Intergroup contact on Facebook.

One correlational study examined whether virtual contact via Facebook is positively related to intergroup relations. The followers of two online campaigns from Iran and Israel-whose countries have been in a politically hostile relationship since the 1980s-indicated the amount of direct and indirect virtual (Facebook) and real-life outgroup contact they have had, a number of quality and affective judgments about that contact, and completed an affective prejudice measure about the respective outgroup. Overall, contact was negatively associated with affective prejudice, providing support for the contact hypothesis in a specific and exclusively virtual setting with citizens of hostile nations. Previously experienced real-life contact did not moderate the results, suggesting that virtual contact has an independent link to positive outgroup attitudes.

The impact of personal relative deprivation on aggression over time.

Being at a disadvantage and perceiving this predicament to be unfair are at the core of the experience of personal relative deprivation. Previous research has shown that personal relative deprivation is associated with interpersonal aggression. The present longitudinal study extended these investigations by examining the impact of personal relative deprivation on aggression over time. In fact, personal relative deprivation at Time 1 was associated with reported aggression at Time 2 even when controlling for the impact of aggression at Time 1. As a secondary goal, we aimed to show that the effect of personal relative deprivation (i.e., increased aggression) may spread through the participant's social network. Egocentric networking data showed that individuals who perceive their friends as being personally deprived are more aggressive and that this relationship statistically holds when taking the individual's level of personal relative deprivation into account. Limitations of this approach are discussed.

The experience of deprivation: Does relative more than absolute status predict hostility?

The present research examined the causal effects of absolute and relative status on experienced deprivation and hostility. On the basis of the theory of relative deprivation, we reasoned that the subjective experience of being worse off than others is a better predictor for hostility than is the absolute level of how well-off people are. Indeed, three experiments showed that relative more than absolute status has an impact on aggressive affect. That is, even when objective resources were high, people were more hostile when their resources compared negatively to others' resources. Although no consistent direct effects were found for a measure of aggressive behaviour, mediation analyses suggest that relative but not absolute deprivation ultimately impacts aggressive behaviour via increased feelings of disadvantage and aggressive affect. The results emphasize the drastic consequences of the rising income inequality, irrespective of a nation's absolute wealth.