Page 315 - The Social Animal

Human Aggression 297

strained and relatively unaggressive. For example, in a study by
Robert Baron and Richard Kepner, 110 subjects were insulted by an
individual and then observed that individual receiving electric shocks
at the hands of a third person. The third person delivered either in-
tense or very mild shocks. There also was a control group in which
subjects did not observe a model administering shocks. Subjects were
then given the opportunity to shock their tormentor.Those who had
witnessed a person delivering intense shocks delivered more intense
shocks than those in the control condition; those who had witnessed
a person delivering mild shocks delivered milder shocks than those
in the control condition. Does this paradigm seem familiar? The
reader can readily see that the expression of aggressive behavior, like
the expression of any behavior, can be viewed as an act of conform-
ity. Specifically, in an ambiguous situation, people look to other peo-
ple for a definition of what is appropriate. Recall that in Chapter 2,
I described the conditions under which you might belch at the din-
ner table of a Freedonian dignitary. Here I am suggesting that, if you
and your friends are frustrated or made angry, and all around you
people in your group are throwing snowballs at your tormentors, it
will increase the probability that you will throw snowballs; if they are
merely talking forcefully, it will increase the probability that you will
talk forcefully; and, alas, if the people in your group are swinging
clubs at the heads of their tormentors, it will increase the probabil-
ity that you will pick up a club and start swinging.

Building Empathy Toward Others Picture the following
scene: There is a long line of cars stopped at a traffic light at a busy
intersection. The light turns green. The lead driver hesitates for 15
seconds. What happens? Of course, there is an eruption of horn-
honking. Not simply a little toot designed to supply the lead driver
with the information that the light has changed, but prolonged and
persistent blasting indicative of a frustrated group of people venting
their annoyance. Indeed, in a controlled experiment, it was found
that, in this kind of situation, approximately 90 percent of the driv-
ers of the second car honked their horns in an aggressive manner. As
part of the same experiment, a pedestrian who crossed the street be-
tween the first and second cars while the light was still red was out of
the intersection by the time the light turned green. Still, almost 90
percent of the second-car drivers tooted their horns when the light