How do people respond to aggression? Theory differs on whether aggressive behavior deters antagonists or provokes retaliation, and the empirical evidence is mixed. We bridge contradictory findings in the literature by identifying a previously unexamined moderating variable: the extent to which individuals can increase their coercive capability (which we call escalating). We argue that when escalating is costly, aggression deters potential antagonists. In contrast, when escalating is less costly, behaving aggressively fails to deter aggressive partners. We test these predictions in two behavioral experiments that manipulate the cost of escalating and whether interaction partners are aggressive or deferential. We find support for deterrence predictions when escalating is either high or low cost but not when it is medium cost. Taken together, we provide evidence that the cost of escalation plays a key role in decisions about aggression.
ChunrongAiNortonEdward C.2003. “Interaction Terms in Logit and Probit Models.” Economics Letters80(1):123–29.
2.
AndersonElijah. 2000. Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City. New York: WW Norton & Company.
3.
AquinoKarlTrippThomas M.BiesRobert J.2001. “How Employees Respond to Personal Offense: The Effects of Blame Attribution, Victim Status, and Offender Status on Revenge and Reconciliation in the Workplace.” Journal of Applied Psychology86(1):52–59.
4.
ArielyDanLoewensteinGeorge. 2006. “The Heat of the Moment: The Effect of Sexual Arousal on Sexual Decision Making.” Journal of Behavioral Decision Making19(2):87–98.
5.
BeckermanStephenEricksonPamela I.YostJamesRegaladoJhaniraJaramilloLiliaSparksCoreyIromengaMoisesLongKathryn. 2009. “Life Histories, Blood Revenge, and Reproductive Success among the Waorani of Ecuador.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences106(20):8134–39.
6.
BenardStephen. 2013. “Reputation Systems, Aggression, and Deterrence in Social Interaction.” Social Science Research42(1):230–45.
7.
BenardStephen. 2015. “The Value of Vengefulness: Reputational Incentives for Initiating Versus Reciprocating Aggression.” Rationality and Society27(2):129–60.
8.
BergMark T.LoeberRolf. 2015. “Violent Conduct and Victimization Risk in the Urban Illicit Drug Economy: A Prospective Examination.” Justice Quarterly32(1):32–55.
9.
BerryWilliam D.DeMerittJacqueline H. R.EsareyJustin. 2010. “Testing for Interaction in Binary Logit and Probit Models: Is a Product Term Essential?” American Journal of Political Science54(1):248–66.
10.
BlauPeter Michael. 1964. Exchange and Power in Social Life. Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
11.
BowlesSamuelGintisHerbert. 1993. “The Revenge of Homo Economicus: Contested Exchange and the Revival of Political Economy.” The Journal of Economic Perspectives7(1):83–102.
12.
ClarkBruce H.MontgomeryDavid B.1998. “Deterrence, Reputations, and Competitive Cognition.” Management Science44(1):62–82.
13.
CookPhilip J.LudwigJens. 2006. “Aiming for evidence-based gun policy.” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management25(3): 691-735.
14.
CrowleyPhilip H.2000. “Hawks, Doves, and Mixed-Symmetry Games.” Journal of Theoretical Biology204(4):543–63.
15.
De MesquitaBruce BuenoMorrowJames D.ZorickEthan R.1997. “Capabilities, Perception, and Escalation.” American Political Science Review91(1):15–27.
16.
FarisRobertEnnettSusan. 2012. “Adolescent Aggression: The Role of Peer Group Status Motives, Peer Aggression, and Group Characteristics.” Social Networks34(4):371–78.
17.
FehrErnstGächterSimon. 2002. “Altruistic Punishment in Humans.” Nature415(6868):137–40.
18.
FelsonRichard B.BergMark T.RogersMeghan L.2014. “Bring a Gun to a Gunfight: Armed Adversaries and Violence across Nations.” Social Science Research47:79–90.
FrankRobert H.1988. Passions within Reason: The Strategic Role of the Emotions. New York: WW Norton & Co.
21.
GouldRoger V.2003. Collision of Wills: How Ambiguity about Social Rank Breeds Conflict. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
22.
GrahamKathrynBernardsSharonOsgoodD. WayneWellsSamantha. 2006. “Bad nights or bad bars? Multi-level analysis of environmental predictors of aggression in late-night large-capacity bars and clubs.” Addiction101(11) 1569-1580.
23.
HalevyNirSagivLilachRoccasSoniaBornsteinGary. 2006. “Perceiving Intergroup Conflict: From Game Models to Mental Templates.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin32(12):1674–89.
24.
HelmBobBonomaThomas V.TedeschiJames T.1972. “Reciprocity for Harm Done.” The Journal of Social Psychology87(1):89–98.
25.
JacobsBruce A.2000. Robbing Drug Dealers: Violence Beyond the Law. Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
26.
JacobsBruce A.WrightRichard. 2006. Street Justice: Retaliation in the Criminal Underworld. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
27.
JohnstoneRufus A.BsharyRedouan. 2004. “Evolution of Spite through Indirect Reciprocity.” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences271(1551):1917–22.
28.
LawlerEdward JFordRebecca S.BlegenMary A.1988. “Coercive Capability in Conflict: A Test of Bilateral Deterrence Versus Conflict Spiral Theory.” Social Psychology Quarterly51:93–107.
29.
LochChristophYazijiMichaelLangenChristian. 2001. “The Fight for the Alpha Position: Channeling Status Competition in Organizations.” European Management Journal19(1):16–25.
30.
LongJ. ScottFreeseJeremy. 2014. Regression Models for Categorical Dependent Variables Using Stata. College Station, TX: Stata Press.
31.
LucasJeffrey W.2003. “Theory-Testing, Generalization, and the Problem of External Validity.” Sociological Theory21(3):236–53.
MolmLinda D.1997. Coercive Power in Social Exchange. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
34.
MolmLinda D.2010. “The Structure of Reciprocity.” Social Psychology Quarterly73(2):119–31.
35.
NisbettRichard E.CohenDov. 1996. Culture of Honor: The Psychology of Violence in the South. Boulder: Westview Press.
36.
PapachristosAndrew V.2009. “Murder by Structure: Dominance Relations and the Social Structure of Gang Homicide.” American Journal of Sociology115(1):74–128.
37.
PodolnyJoel M.Scott MortonFiona M.1999. “Social Status, Entry and Predation: The Case of British Shipping Cartels 1879–1929.” The Journal of Industrial Economics47(1):41–67.
38.
Rabe-HeskethSophiaSkrondalAnders. 2012. Multilevel and Longitudinal Modeling Using Stata. College Station, TX: STATA Press.
39.
RaineyCarlisle. 2016. “Compression and Conditional Effects: A Product Term Is Essential When Using Logistic Regression to Test for Interaction.” Political Science Research and Methods4(03):621–39.
40.
SampsonRobert J.LauritsenJanet L.1994. “Violent Victimization and Offending: Individual-, Situational-, and Community-Level Risk Factors.” Pp. 1–114 in Understanding and Preventing Violence. Vol. 3, edited by ReissA. J.Jr.RothJ. A.Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
41.
SampsonRobert J.BeanLydia2006. “Cultural mechanisms and killing fields: A revised theory of community-level racial inequality.” The many colors of crime: Inequalities of race, ethnicity and crime in America. Edited by PetersonRuthKrivoLaurenHaganJohn. New York: New York University Press.
42.
SchellingThomas C. [1960]1980. The Strategy of Conflict. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
43.
SnyderGlenn H.1971. “‘Prisoner’s Dilemma’ and ‘Chicken’ Models in International Politics.” International Studies Quarterly15(1):66–103.
44.
TedeschiJames T.FelsonRichard B.1994. Violence, Aggression, and Coercive Actions. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
45.
TopalliVolkanWrightRichardFornangoRobert. 2002. “Drug Dealers, Robbery and Retaliation. Vulnerability, Deterrence and the Contagion of Violence.” British Journal of Criminology42(2):337–51.
46.
YamagishiToshio. 1986. “The Provision of a Sanctioning System as a Public Good.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology51(1):110–16.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
