Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky.
Aggress Behav. 2013 Nov-Dec;39(6):419-39. doi: 10.1002/ab.21496. Epub 2013 Jul 22.
Aggression pervades modern life. To understand the root causes of aggression, researchers have developed several methods to assess aggressive inclinations. The current article introduces a new behavioral method-the voodoo doll task (VDT)-that offers a reliable and valid trait and state measure of aggressive inclinations across settings and relationship contexts. Drawing on theory and research on the law of similarity and magical beliefs (Rozin, Millman, & Nemeroff [1986], Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 703-712), we propose that people transfer characteristics of a person onto a voodoo doll representing that person. As a result, causing harm to a voodoo doll by stabbing it with pins may have important psychological similarities to causing actual harm to the person the voodoo doll represents. Nine methodologically diverse studies (total N = 1,376) showed that the VDT had strong reliability, construct validity, and convergent validity. Discussion centers on the importance of magical beliefs in understanding the causes of aggressive inclinations.
攻击行为普遍存在于现代生活中。为了探究攻击行为的根源，研究人员开发了几种评估攻击倾向的方法。本文介绍了一种新的行为方法——巫毒娃娃任务（VDT），该方法可以在不同情境和人际关系中可靠有效地测量个体的攻击倾向特质和状态。该方法基于相似性法则和魔法信念理论（Rozin、Millman 和 Nemeroff [1986]，《人格与社会心理学杂志》，50 期，第 703-712 页），提出人们会将他人的特征转移到代表那个人的巫毒娃娃上。因此，用针刺巫毒娃娃可能会在心理上与实际伤害娃娃所代表的人有重要的相似之处。9 项方法学各异的研究（总 N=1376）表明，VDT 具有很强的信度、构念效度和聚合效度。讨论集中在魔法信念在理解攻击倾向原因方面的重要性。
