TY - JOUR PY - 2002// TI - Inferences about the morality of an aggressor: the role of perceived motive JO - Journal of personality and social psychology A1 - Reeder, Glenn D. A1 - Kumar, Shamala A1 - Hesson-McInnis, Matthew S. A1 - Trafimow, David SP - 789 EP - 803 VL - 83 IS - 4 N2 - The research investigated perceivers' inferences about the morality of target persons who engaged in aggressive behavior. Across several experiments, inferences about the morality of an aggressor were based more on the perceived motives of the target than on the presence of facilitating situational forces. For example, when a target's aggression was facilitated by personal rewards for aggression (instrumental aggression), perceivers inferred more negative motives and attributed lower morality to the target than when the target's aggression was facilitated by situational provocation (reactive aggression). The results suggest that perceived motives play an important role in dispositional inference and pose a problem for models that focus primarily on perceived causality, assumptions about base rates (consensus), or diagnosticity.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0022-3514 UR - http://dx.doi.org/ ID - ref1 ER -