Attitude problem
Catching Rudeness Is Like Catching a Cold: The Contagion Effects of Low-Intensity Negative Behaviors
Trevor Foulk, Andrew Woolum & Amir Erez
Journal of Applied Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
In this article we offer a new perspective to the study of negative behavioral contagion in organizations. In 3 studies, we investigate the contagion effect of rudeness and the cognitive mechanism that explains this effect. Study 1 results show that low-intensity negative behaviors like rudeness can be contagious, and that this contagion effect can occur based on single episodes, that anybody can be a carrier, and that this contagion effect has second-order consequences for future interaction partners. In Studies 2 and 3 we explore in the laboratory the cognitive mechanism that underlies the negative behavioral contagion effect observed in Study 1. Specifically, we show that rudeness activates a semantic network of related concepts in individuals’ minds, and that this activation influences individual’s hostile behaviors. In sum, in these 3 studies we show that just like the common cold, common negative behaviors can spread easily and have significant consequences for people in organizations.
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James Sauer, Aaron Drummond & Natalie Nova
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, forthcoming
Abstract:
The potential influence of video game violence on real-world aggression has generated considerable public and scientific interest. Some previous research suggests that playing violent video games can increase postgame aggression. The generalized aggression model (GAM) attributes this to the generalized activation of aggressive schemata. However, it is unclear whether game mechanics that contextualize and encourage or inhibit in-game violence moderate this relationship. Thus, we examined the effects of reward structures and narrative context in a violent video game on in-game and postgame aggression. Contrary to GAM-based predictions, our manipulations differentially affected in-game and postgame aggression. Reward structures selectively affected in-game aggression, whereas narrative context selectively affected postgame aggression. Players who enacted in-game violence through a heroic character exhibited less postgame aggression than players who enacted comparable levels of in-game violence through an antiheroic character. Effects were not attributable to self-activation or character-identification mechanisms, but were consistent with social–cognitive context effects on the interpretation of behavior. These results contradict the GAM’s assertion that violent video games affect aggression through a generalized activation mechanism. From an applied perspective, consumer choices may be aided by considering not just game content, but the context in which content is portrayed.
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Christina Dardis at al.
Psychology of Violence, forthcoming
Objective: Social norms approaches to sexual assault prevention have proliferated despite a dearth of empirical evidence for the tenets of social norms theory as it relates to sexual assault. Whereas previous research has found that men’s perceptions of peer aggression influence their perpetration of sexual assault, previous research has not assessed the extent to which men’s perceptions are accurate about their close peers.
Method: Undergraduate men (N = 100) from the psychology participant pool completed surveys along with a close friend (N = 100); the concordance in their beliefs about rape and attitudes toward women as well as reported sexually aggressive behaviors was assessed.
Results: Men’s own beliefs about rape and attitudes about women were correlated with both their perceptions of their friends’ and of the average college male’s beliefs, but not with their friends’ actual reported beliefs; men’s perceptions of their friends’ beliefs about rape and attitudes toward women were uncorrelated with their friends’ actual reported beliefs as well. Perpetrators of sexual assault were significantly more likely to overestimate their friends’ involvement in sexually aggressive behaviors than were nonperpetrators. The order of measures presented was unrelated to endorsement of any of the variables of interest.
Conclusions: Perpetrators of sexual assault hold inaccurate beliefs about their peers’ sexually aggressive attitudes and behaviors, which can be targeted in prevention programming. Such programming should provide more accurate descriptive (e.g., rates of sexual assault among men) as well as injunctive norms (i.e., rates of men’s approval or disapproval of attitudes and beliefs) to combat pluralistic ignorance and the false consensus effect.
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Beate Wold Hygen et al.
Developmental Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Both genetic and environmental factors contribute to individual differences in aggression. Catechol-O-methyltransferase Val158Met (COMT), a common, functional polymorphism, has been implicated in aggression and aggression traits, as have childhood experiences of adversity. It is unknown whether these effects are additive or interactional and, in the case of interaction, whether they conform to a diathesis-stress or differential susceptibility model. We examined Gene × Environment interactions between COMT and serious life events on measures of childhood aggression and contrasted these 2 models. The sample was composed of community children (N = 704); 355 were boys, and the mean age was 54.8 months (SD = 3.0). The children were genotyped for COMT rs4680 and assessed for serious life events and by teacher-rated aggression. Regression analysis showed no main effects of COMT and serious life events on aggression. However, a significant interactive effect of childhood serious life events and COMT genotype was observed: Children who had faced many serious life events and were Val homozygotes exhibited more aggression (p = .02) than did their Met-carrying counterparts. Notably, in the absence of serious life events, Val homozygotes displayed significantly lower aggression scores than did Met carriers (p = .03). When tested, this constellation of findings conformed to the differential susceptibility hypothesis: In this case, Val homozygotes are more malleable to the effect of serious life events on aggression and not simply more vulnerable to the negative effect of having experienced many serious life events.
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Marieke Buil et al.
Journal of Youth and Adolescence, July 2015, Pages 1360-1378
Abstract:
The peer environment is among the most important factors for children’s behavioral development. However, not all children are equally influenced by their peers, which is potentially due to their genetic make-up. The dopamine receptor D4 gene (DRD4) is a potential candidate gene that may influence children’s susceptibility to the peer environment. In the present study, we explored whether variations in the DRD4 gene moderated the association between children’s social standing in the peer group (i.e., social preference among classmates) with subsequent conduct problems and prosocial behavior among 405 (51 % females) elementary school children followed annually throughout early adolescence (ages 9–12 years). The behavioral development of children with and without the DRD4 7-repeat allele was compared. The results indicated that children who had higher positive social preference scores (i.e., who were more liked relative to disliked by their peers) showed less conduct problem development in subsequent years relative to children who had lower positive social preference scores. In contrast, children who had more negative preference scores (i.e., who were more disliked relative to liked among peers) showed more conduct problem development in subsequent years, relative to children who had less negative preference scores. However, these effects only occurred when children had a 7-repeat allele. For children who did not have a 7-repeat allele, the level of social preference was not associated with subsequent conduct problems. No evidence for gene–environment interaction effects for prosocial behavior was found. The implications for our understanding of conduct problem development and its prevention are discussed.
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Longitudinal Associations Between Cybervictimization and Mental Health Among U.S. Adolescents
Chad Rose & Brendesha Tynes
Journal of Adolescent Health, forthcoming
Purpose: An emerging body of literature suggests that victims of bullying report detrimental mental health outcomes, such as depression and anxiety. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between cybervictimization, depression, and anxiety among school-aged youth over a 3-year time frame.
Methods: Students in Grades 6 through 12 at the initial wave of the study responded to survey items designed to assess their online experiences, including cybervictimization and self-reported depression and anxiety at three separate time points, over a 3-year period. In total, 559 school-aged youth participated in the study.
Results: Results suggest a reciprocal relationship between cybervictimization and depression and cybervictimization and anxiety. More specifically, depression at Time 1 predicted cybervictimization at Time 2, depression at Time 2 predicted cybervictimization at Time 3, and cybervictimization at Time 1 predicted depression at Time 3. Additionally, cybervictimization at Time 1 predicted anxiety at Time 2, cybervictimization at Time 2 predicted anxiety at Time 3, and anxiety at Time 1 predicted cybervictimization at Time 2.
Conclusions: Based on the findings from this study, cybervictimization, depression, and anxiety seem to have a reciprocal relationship. Therefore, educational and mental health professionals should consider interventions that address adolescents' online experiences, while supporting mental health and social and emotional learning.
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Donald Saucier et al.
Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Masculine honor consists of stereotypic beliefs about male behavior, including the belief that men’s aggression is appropriate, justifiable, and necessary in response to provocation, especially provocation that insults or threatens one’s manhood, family, or romantic partner. We conducted two studies examining the relationships between stereotypic masculine honor beliefs and perceptions of rape. Masculine honor beliefs generally were associated with both negative attitudes toward rape and negative attitudes toward women who have been raped. Further, different components of masculine honor beliefs correlated differently with various rape perceptions. These outcomes illustrate the complexity of the stereotypic beliefs about appropriate male behavior that comprise masculine honor, and which emphasize men’s responsibility to both take care of others and demonstrate interpersonal dominance.
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Jessica Salvatore et al.
Journal of Abnormal Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
We examine whether parental externalizing behavior has an indirect effect on adolescent externalizing behavior via elevations in life events, and whether this indirect effect is further qualified by an interaction between life events and adolescents’ GABRA2 genotype (rs279871). We use data from 2 samples: the Child Development Project (CDP; n = 324) and FinnTwin12 (n = 802). In CDP, repeated measures of life events, mother-reported adolescent externalizing, and teacher-reported adolescent externalizing were used. In FinnTwin12, life events and externalizing were assessed at age 14. Parental externalizing was indexed by measures of antisocial behavior and alcohol problems or alcohol dependence symptoms in both samples. In CDP, parental externalizing was associated with more life events, and the association between life events and subsequent adolescent externalizing varied as a function of GABRA2 genotype (p ≤ .05). The association between life events and subsequent adolescent externalizing was stronger for adolescents with 0 copies of the G minor allele compared to those with 1 or 2 copies of the minor allele. Parallel moderation trends were observed in FinnTwin12 (p ≤ .11). The discussion focuses on how the strength of intergenerational pathways for externalizing psychopathology may differ as a function of adolescent-level individual differences.
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Eric Connolly et al.
Journal of Youth and Adolescence, July 2015, Pages 1413-1427
Abstract:
An extensive line of research has identified delinquent peer association as a salient environmental risk factor for delinquency, especially during adolescence. While previous research has found moderate-to-strong associations between exposure to delinquent peers and a variety of delinquent behaviors, comparatively less scholarship has focused on the genetic architecture of this association over the course of adolescence. Using a subsample of kinship pairs (N = 2379; 52 % female) from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth—Child and Young Adult Supplement (CNLSY), the present study examined the extent to which correlated individual differences in starting levels and developmental growth in delinquent peer pressure and self-reported delinquency were explained by additive genetic and environmental influences. Results from a series of biometric growth models revealed that 37 % of the variance in correlated growth between delinquent peer pressure and self-reported delinquency was explained by additive genetic effects, while nonshared environmental effects accounted for the remaining 63 % of the variance. Implications of these findings for interpreting the nexus between peer effects and adolescent delinquency are discussed.