Boccadoro Sara, Wagels Lisa, Henn Alina Theresa, Hüpen Philippa, Graben Lia, Raine Adrian, Neuner Irene
Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Faculty of Medicine, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
JARA-BRAIN Institute Brain Structure and Function, INM-10, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Jülich Research Centre, Jülich, Germany.
Front Behav Neurosci. 2021 Sep 29;15:749041. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2021.749041. eCollection 2021.
The Taylor Aggression Paradigm (TAP) has been widely used to measure reactive aggression following provocation during competitive interactions. Besides being reactive, aggression can be goal-directed (proactive aggression). Our study presents a novel paradigm to investigate proactive aggression during competitive interactions. Sixty-seven healthy participants competed in two modified versions of the TAP against an ostensible opponent while skin conductance responses (SCRs) were recorded. During the proactive TAP (pTAP), only the participant could interfere with the ostensible opponent's performance by blurring the screen. In the reactive TAP (rTAP), the opponent repeatedly provoked the participant by blurring the screen of the participant, impeding their chance to win. In both versions, the blurriness levels chosen by the participant served as a measure of aggression (unprovoked in the pTAP and provoked in the rTAP). In the pTAP, trial-by-trial mixed model analyses revealed higher aggression with higher self-reported selfishness. SCRs decreased with increasing proactive aggression. An interaction effect between gender and proactive aggression for the SCRs revealed increased SCRs at higher aggression levels in females, but lower SCRs at higher aggression levels in males. In the rTAP, SCRs were not associated with reactive aggression but aggression increased with increasing provocation and especially after losing against the opponent when provoked. While males showed higher aggression levels than females when unprovoked, reactive aggression increased more strongly in females with higher provocation. Mean levels of aggression in both tasks showed a high positive correlation. Our results highlight that, despite being intercorrelated and both motivated by selfishness, proactive and reactive aggression are differentially influenced by gender and physiological arousal. Proactive aggression is related to lower physiological arousal, especially in males, with females showing the opposite association. Reactive aggressive behavior is a result of individual responses to provocation, to which females seem to be more sensitive.
泰勒攻击范式（TAP）已被广泛用于测量竞争互动中受到挑衅后的反应性攻击。除了反应性攻击外，攻击还可以是目标导向的（主动性攻击）。我们的研究提出了一种新的范式来研究竞争互动中的主动性攻击。67名健康参与者在两个修改版的TAP中与一个名义上的对手竞争，同时记录皮肤电反应（SCR）。在主动性TAP（pTAP）中，只有参与者可以通过模糊屏幕来干扰名义上对手的表现。在反应性TAP（rTAP）中，对手通过模糊参与者的屏幕反复挑衅参与者，阻碍他们获胜的机会。在两个版本中，参与者选择的模糊程度作为攻击的一种衡量（pTAP中是无挑衅的，rTAP中是有挑衅的）。在pTAP中，逐次试验的混合模型分析显示，自我报告的自私程度越高，攻击性越强。随着主动性攻击的增加，SCR降低。SCR的性别与主动性攻击之间的交互作用表明，在较高攻击水平下，女性的SCR增加，而男性的SCR降低。在rTAP中，SCR与反应性攻击无关，但攻击随着挑衅的增加而增加，尤其是在被挑衅后输给对手时。虽然在无挑衅时男性的攻击水平高于女性，但在较高挑衅下，女性的反应性攻击增加得更强。两项任务中的平均攻击水平显示出高度正相关。我们的结果强调，尽管主动性攻击和反应性攻击相互关联且都受自私动机驱动，但它们在性别和生理唤醒方面受到不同的影响。主动性攻击与较低的生理唤醒有关，尤其是在男性中，而女性则呈现相反的关联。反应性攻击行为是个体对挑衅的反应结果，女性似乎对挑衅更敏感。
