20 male and 20 female undergraduates were provoked and provided with an opportunity to retaliate (a) immediately following provocation vs (b) after waiting in solitude. Waiting did not reliably affect level of retaliatory activities, and there were no appreciable sex differences in such activities. However, waiting produced significant decrements in sympathetic excitation for females but not for males. Waiting furthered pre-retaliatory feelings of depression in females. Waiting also furthered post-retaliatory feelings of disturbance in both sexes, and post-retaliatory feelings of agitation in males.
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