Abstract
When thwarted goals increase endorsement of violence, it may not always reflect antisocial tendencies or some breakdown of self-regulation per se; such responses can also reflect an active process of self-regulation, whose purpose is to comply with the norms of one's social environment. In the present experiments (total N 2,145), the causal link between thwarted goals and endorsement of violent means (guns and war) was found to be contingent on perceptions that violence is normatively valued. Experiments 1-3 establish that thwarted goals increase endorsement of violence primarily among U.S. adults of a lower educational background and/or men who endorse a masculine honor culture. Experiment 4 manipulates the perceived normative consensus of college educated Americans, and demonstrates that thwarted goals increase college educated Americans' endorsement of whatever norm is salient: prowar or antiwar. Generalizing the model beyond violent means, Experiment 5 demonstrates that goal-thwarted Europeans report increased willingness to volunteer for refugee support activities if they perceive strong social norms to volunteer. Altogether, these findings support a frustration-affirmation model rather than frustration-aggression, whereby thwarted goals increase compliance with perceived norms for behavior, which can increase endorsement of violent means such as guns and war, but also nonviolent charitable actions.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 249-271 |
Number of pages | 23 |
Journal | Journal of personality and social psychology |
Volume | 119 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Aug-2020 |
Keywords
- thwarted goals
- group norms
- guns
- violence
- social cognition
- RACIAL-DISCRIMINATION
- DISPLACED AGGRESSION
- SELF-AFFIRMATION
- PSYCHOLOGY
- PURSUIT
- THREAT
- PERCEPTIONS
- PERSONALITY
- ACTIVATION
- EDUCATION