Citation

Baron RA, Bell PA. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 1975; 31(5): 825-832.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1975, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/h0076647

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

64 male undergraduates participated in an experiment designed to examine the effects of level of prior anger arousal, exposure to an aggressive model, and ambient temperature on physical aggression. On the basis of A. Bandura's (1973) social learning theory of aggression, it was predicted that uncomfortably hot environmental conditions would be most effective in facilitating later aggression when Ss had both witnessed the actions of the model and been exposed to strong provocation from the victim, but least effective in this regard when they had neither witnessed the actions of the model nor been exposed to prior instigation. In contrast to these predictions, results indicate that high ambient temperatures facilitated aggression by nonangered Ss but actually inhibited such behavior by those who had previously been provoked. KW: Temperature Violence

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