Page 288 - The Social Animal

270 The Social Animal

go around picking fights. Rather, the results of laboratory and field
experiments indicate that alcohol serves as a disinhibitor; that is,
drinking reduces social inhibitions, making us less cautious than we
usually are. But it is more than that. Recent experiments have shown
that alcohol tends to disrupt the way we usually process informa-
44
tion. What this means is that intoxicated people often respond to
the earliest and most obvious aspects of a social situation and tend to
miss the subtleties. For example, in practical terms, if you are sober
and someone accidentally steps on your toe, chances are you would
know the person didn’t do it on purpose. But, if you were drunk, you
might miss the subtlety of the situation and respond as if he stomped
on your foot with full intent. Accordingly (especially if you are a
male), you might retaliate with physical aggression. This is precisely
the kind of ambiguous situation that males might interpret as
provocative if they are not thinking clearly.

Pain and Discomfort Pain and discomfort are major precursors of
aggression. If an organism experiences pain and cannot flee the
scene, it will almost invariably attack; this is true of rats, mice, ham-
sters, foxes, monkeys, crayfish, snakes, raccoons, alligators, and a host
48
of other animals. Such animals will attack members of their own
species, members of different species, or anything else in sight, in-
cluding stuffed dolls and tennis balls. Do you think this is true of
human beings, as well? A moment’s reflection might help you guess
that it may very well be. Most of us become irritable when subjected
to a sharp, unexpected pain (e.g., when we stub our toe) and hence
are prone to lash out at the nearest available target. In a series of ex-
49
periments, Leonard Berkowitz showed that students who under-
went the pain of having their hand immersed in very cold water
showed a sharp increase in actually committing aggressive acts
against other students.
By the same token, observers have speculated that other forms
of bodily discomfort, such as heat, humidity, air pollution, and offen-
sive odors, might act to lower the threshold for aggressive behavior. 50
For example, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, when a great deal
of tension existed in the United States concerning the war in Viet-
nam, racial injustice, and the like, national leaders worried a lot about
a phenomenon they referred to as “the long, hot summer.” That is,
they suggested that the tendency for riots and other forms of civic