Understanding Aggression: The Role of Provocation, Internal State, and Provocateur’s Social Status in a Scenario Based Experiment

• In Event: Rigours Testing in Criminological Research

Abstract

By testing an extended General Aggression Model, this study aims to better understand the reaction process to a provocation. It examines how provocation affects the internal state of the provoked person and the conditioning role of the provocateur’s social status. Based on assumptions from the Social Organizing Process, we expect that the provoked person forms different expectation states based on provocateur’s status characteristics. These expectation states influence the provoked person’s perception of the provocation, their internal reaction, and the likelihood of choosing a particular reaction.
Using a scenario-based experiment (2-by-2 between-subjects design) within a representative sample of the German working population, provocation, and social status (indicated by different occupations) were experimentally manipulated. Three indicators of the internal state, and three intended reactions were measured. Results show that a provocation decreased the likelihood of not responding to the situation and increased the likelihood of a verbally or physically aggressive reaction. These effects were mediated by the internal state. The effect of the provocation on the internal state was moderated by the social status of the provocateur. A higher status resulted in a stronger increase in the internal state. In addition, only the verbal reaction to the provocation was significantly less affected by the internal state when the provocateur was of high status.

Authors

• Lea Becher, Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony

• Guido Mehlkop, University of Erfurt

• Sebastian Sattler, University of Bielefeld