DeBono Amber, Layton Rebekah L, Freeman Nicholas, Muraven Mark
a Winston-Salem State University.
b University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
J Soc Psychol. 2017;157(1):64-76. doi: 10.1080/00224545.2016.1165168. Epub 2016 Mar 16.
Logically, responding aggressively to rejection is maladaptive because one is unlikely to seek a relationship with an aggressor. We predict that when concealed, the illogical aggressive response to rejection is more likely, whereas when the rejected individuals' aggressive responses are perceived as public, the aggressive acts may be reduced. Participants were rejected by others (Experiment 1) or were either accepted or rejected during an online ball-tossing game (Experiment 2) and were then given an opportunity to aggress publicly or privately. Across experiments, when the opportunity to aggress was made public, rejected participants exhibited less aggressive behavior. When concerned about the perception of their public aggressive responses by others, rejected individuals' aggressive responses diminished compared with those whose actions were private. Crucially, this extended to aggression visible only to neutral others, suggesting that effects cannot solely be due to fear of retribution.
从逻辑上讲，对拒绝做出攻击性回应是适应不良的，因为一个人不太可能寻求与攻击者建立关系。我们预测，当这种回应是隐蔽的时候，对拒绝做出不合逻辑的攻击性回应的可能性更大，而当被拒绝者的攻击性回应被视为公开行为时，攻击性行为可能会减少。在实验1中，参与者被他人拒绝，在实验2中，参与者在一场在线抛球游戏中要么被接受要么被拒绝，然后他们有机会公开或私下进行攻击行为。在所有实验中，当攻击行为的机会是公开的时候，被拒绝的参与者表现出的攻击性行为较少。当担心他人对自己公开攻击行为的看法时，与行为是私下进行的被拒绝者相比，他们的攻击性行为会减少。至关重要的是，这一现象延伸到了只有中立的他人才能看到的攻击行为，这表明这种影响不能仅仅归因于对报复的恐惧。
