Aggression as a Function of Similarity between Aggressor and Victim

Abstract

In studying aggression and punitivity, aggressor's perceived similarity between himself and the stimulus person was hypothesized to interact with aggressor's hostility. According to predictions, aggression generally was higher toward the dissimilar than the similar stimulus, and this difference was greater for high than for low-hostile Ss. Also, female Ss saw themselves as less similar on attributes they considered important than on “unimportant” attributes, but contrary to prediction, high-hostile Ss not more so than low-hostile Ss. While over-all perceived similarity was not related to punitivity, the tendency to perceive lower similarity on important than less important attributes correlated directly with punitivity.