When nasty breeds nice: Threats of violence amplify agreeableness at national, individual, and situational levels

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Volumn 103, Issue 4, 2012, Pages 622-634

  White, Andrew Edward ^a   Kenrick, Douglas T ^a   Li, Yexin Jessica ^a   Mortensen, Chad R ^b   Neuberg, Steven L ^a   Cohen, Adam B ^a  

^a ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b METROPOLITAN STATE UNIVERSITY OF DENVER   (United States)

Author keywords

Affiliation; Aggression; Agreeableness; Personality; Threat

Indexed keywords

ADULT; AGGRESSION; ARTICLE; COMPARATIVE STUDY; ECONOMICS; ETHNOLOGY; FEMALE; GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT; GROUP PROCESS; HUMAN; HUMAN RELATION; MALE; PERCEPTION; PERSONALITY; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT; VIOLENCE;

ADULT; AGGRESSION; FEMALE; GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT; GROUP PROCESSES; HUMANS; INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS; MALE; PERSONALITY; SOCIAL PERCEPTION; VIOLENCE; YOUNG ADULT;

EID: 84874472278     PISSN: 00223514     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1037/a0029140     Document Type: Article

References (89)

1. Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
2. Altemeyer, B. (1988). Enemies of freedom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
3. Asendorpf, J. B., & van Aken, M. A. (2003). Personality-relationship transaction in adolescence: Core versus surface personality characteristics. Journal of Personality, 71, 629-666. doi:10.1111/1467-6494.7104005
4. Ben-Ner, A., & Halldorsson, F. (2010). Trusting and trustworthiness: What are they, how to measure them, and what affects them. Journal of Economic Psychology, 31, 64-79. doi:10.1016/j.joep.2009.10.001
5. Berger, S. M. (1962). Conditioning through vicarious instigation. Psycho-logical Review, 69, 450-466. doi:10.1037/h0046466
6. Berkowitz, L. (1987). Mood, self-awareness, and willingness to help. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 721-729. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.52.4.721
7. Berkowitz, L. (1990). On the formation and regulation of anger and aggression: A cognitive-neoassociationistic analysis. American Psychologist, 45, 494-503. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.45.4.494
8. Caprara, G. V., Alessandri, G., Di Giunta, L., Panerai, L., & Eisenberg, N. (2010). The contribution of agreeableness and self-efficacy beliefs to prosociality. European Journal of Personality, 24, 36-55. doi:10.1002/per.739
9. Carey, G. (2003). Human genetics for the social sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
10. CIA World Factbook. (2007). Country comparison: Military expenditures [Data file]. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2034rank.html
11. Cosmides, L., & Tooby, J. (1992). Cognitive adaptations for social exchange. In J. H. Barkow, L. Cosmides, & J. Tooby (Eds.), The adapted mind (pp. 163-228). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
12. Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1992). Four ways five factors are basic. Personality and Individual Differences, 13, 653-665. doi:10.1016/0191-8869(92)90236-I
13. Cottrell, C. A., Neuberg, S. L., & Li, N. P. (2007). What do people desire in others? A sociofunctional perspective on the importance of different valued characteristics. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 208-231. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.92.2.208
14. Crook, P. J., & Evans, F. C. (1960). On some aspects of spatial patterns in biological populations. Science, 121, 397-398.
15. Darling, F. F. (1937). A herd of red deer. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
16. Diener, E. (2000). Subjective well-being: The science of happiness and a proposal for a national index. American Psychologist, 55, 34-43. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.34
17. Dodge, K. A., & Frame, C. L. (1982). Social cognitive biases and deficits in aggressive boys. Child Development, 53, 620-635. doi:10.2307/1129373
18. Dodge, K. A., Price, J. M., Bachorowski, J. A., & Newman, J. P. (1990). Hostile attributional biases in severely aggressive adolescents. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 99, 385-392. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.99.4.385
19. Dollard, J., Miller, N. E., Doob, L. W., Mowrer, O. H., & Sears, R. R. (1939). Frustration and aggression. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. doi:10.1037/10022-000
20. Duntley, J. D. (2005). Adaptations to dangers from humans. In D. M. Buss (Ed.), Handbook of evolutionary psychology (pp. 224-249). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
21. Edwards, J. R. (1994). The study of congruence in organizational behavior research: Critique and a proposed alternative. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 58, 51-100. doi:10.1006/obhd.1994.1029
22. Evans, A., & Revelle, W. (2008). Survey and behavioral measurements of interpersonal trust. Journal of Research in Personality, 42, 1585-1593. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2008.07.011
23. Funder, D. C. (2006). Towards a resolution of the personality triad: Persons, situations, and behaviors. Journal of Research in Personality, 40, 21-34. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2005.08.003
24. Funder, D. C., & Colvin, C. (1991). Explorations in behavioral consistency: Properties of persons, situations, and behaviors. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 773-794. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.60.5.773
25. Furr, R. M., & Funder, D. C. (2004). Situational similarity and behavioral consistency: Subjective, objective, variable-centered, and person-centered approaches. Journal of Research in Personality, 38, 421-447. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2003.10.001
26. Geary, D. C., & Flinn, M. V. (2002). Sex differences in behavioral and hormonal response to social threat: Commentary on Taylor et al. (2000). Psychological Review, 109, 745-750. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.109.4.745
27. Gleason, K. A., Jensen-Campbell, L. A., & Richardson, D. S. (2004). Agreeableness as a predictor of aggression in adolescence. Aggressive Behavior, 30, 43-61. doi:10.1002/ab.20002
28. Goldberg, L. R. (1993). The structure of phenotypic personality traits. American Psychologist, 48, 26-34. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.48.1.26
29. Graziano, W. G., Habashi, M. M., Sheese, B. E., & Tobin, R. M. (2007). Agreeableness, empathy, and helping: A Person Universal-GreekwithMathPi.-1.H11003 Situation perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 583-599. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.93.4.583
30. Graziano, W. G., Hair, E. C., & Finch, J. F. (1997). Competitiveness mediates the link between personality and group performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 1394-1408. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.73.6.1394
31. Graziano, W. G., Jensen-Campbell, L. A., & Hair, E. C. (1996). Perceiving interpersonal conflict and reacting to it: The case for agreeableness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 820-835. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.70.4.820
32. Griffitt, W. (1970). Environmental effects on interpersonal behavior: Ambient effective temperature and attraction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 15, 240-244. doi:10.1037/h0029432
33. Griskevicius, V., Delton, A. W., Robertson, T. E., & Tybur, J. M. (2011). The environmental contingency of life history strategies: Influences of mortality and SES on reproductive timing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100, 241-254. doi:10.1037/a0021082
34. Griskevicius, V., Goldstein, N. J., Mortensen, C. R., Cialdini, R. B., & Kenrick, D. T. (2006). Going along versus going alone: When fundamental motives facilitate strategic (non)conformity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 281-294. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.91.2.281
35. Griskevicius, V., Tybur, J. M., Delton, A. W., & Robertson, T. E. (2011). The influence of mortality and SES on risk and delayed rewards: A life history theory approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100, 1015-1026. doi:10.1037/a0022403
36. Gunnar, M. R. (2007). Stress effects on the developing brain. In D. Romer & E. F. Walker (Eds.), Adolescent psychopathology and the developing brain: Integrating brain and prevention science (pp. 127-147). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195306255.003.0006
37. Hahn, R., & Comrey, A. L. (1994). Factor analysis of the NEO-PI and Comrey Personality Scales. Psychological Reports, 75, 355-365. doi:10.2466/pr0.1994.75.1.355
38. Hubbard, J. A., Dodge, K. A., Cillessen, A. H. N., Coie, J. D., & Schwartz, D. (2001). The dyadic nature of social information processing in boys' reactive and proactive aggression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 268-280. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.80.2.268
39. Jang, K. L., Livesley, W. J., & Vernon, P. A. (1996). Heritability of the Big Five personality dimensions and their facets: A twin study. Journal of Personality, 64, 577-592. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.1996.tb00522.x
40. Jensen-Campbell, L. A., & Graziano, W. G. (2001). Agreeableness as a moderator of interpersonal conflict. Journal of Personality, 69, 323-362. doi:10.1111/1467-6494.00148
41. Jiao, S., Ji, G., & Jing, Q. (1986). Comparative study of behavioral qualities of only children and sibling children. Child Development, 57, 357-361. doi:10.2307/1130591
42. John, O. P., Caspi, A., Robins, R. W., & Moffitt, T. E. (1994). The "little five": Exploring the nomological network of the five-factor model of personality in adolescent boys. Child Development, 65, 160-178. doi:10.2307/1131373
43. John, O. P., & Srivastava, S. (1999). The Big Five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives. In L. A. Pervin & O. P. John (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (2nd ed. pp. 102-138). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
44. Jones, E. E., & Wortman, C. (1973). Ingratiation: An attributional approach. Morristown, NJ: General Learning Press.
45. Kausel, E. E., & Slaughter, J. E. (2011). Narrow personality traits and organizational attraction: Evidence for the complementary hypotheses. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 114, 3-14. doi:10.1016/j.obhdp.2010.08.002
46. Kenrick, D. T., & Sheets, V. (1993). Homicidal fantasies. Ethology & Sociobiology, 14, 231-246. doi:10.1016/0162-3095(93)90019-E
47. Kenrick, D. T., Li, N. P., & Butner, J. (2003). Dynamical evolutionary psychology: Individual decision rules and emergent social norms. Psychological Review, 110, 3-28. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.110.1.3
48. Krause, J. (1994). Differential fitness returns in relation to spatial position in groups. Biological Review, 69, 187-206. doi:10.1111/j.1469-185X.1994.tb01505.x
49. Kriesberg, L., & Klein, R. (1980). Changes in public support for U.S. military spending. The Journal of Conflict Resolution, 24, 79-111.
50. Loehlin, J. C., McCrae, R. R., Costa, P. T., & John, O. P. (1998). Heritabilities of common and measure-specific components of the Big Five personality factors. Journal of Research in Personality, 32, 431-453. doi:10.1006/jrpe.1998.2225
51. MacLaren, V. V., Best, L. A., & Bigney, E. E. (2010). Aggression-hostility predicts direction of defensive responses to human threat scenarios. Personality and Individual Differences, 49, 142-147. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2010.03.024
52. Maner, J. K., Kenrick, D. T., Becker, V. B., Robertson, T. E., Hofer, B., Neuberg, S. L.,... Schaller, M. (2005). Functional projection: How fundamental social motives can bias interpersonal perception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 63-78. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.88.1.63
53. Martin, R., Watson, D., & Wan, C. K. (2000). A three-factor model of trait anger: Dimensions of affect, behavior, and cognition. Journal of Personality, 68, 869-897. doi:10.1111/1467-6494.00119
54. McCrae, R. R., & John, O. P. (1992). An introduction to the five factor model and its applications. Journal of Personality, 60, 175-215. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.1992.tb00970.x
55. Meier, B. P., Robinson, M. D., & Wilkowski, B. M. (2006). Turning the other cheek: Agreeableness and the regulation of aggression-related primes. Psychological Science, 17, 136-142. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01676.x
56. Mills, J., & Clark, M. S. (1994). Communal and exchange relationships: Controversies and research. In R. Erber & R. Gilmour (Eds.), Theoretical frameworks for personal relationships (pp. 29-42). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
57. Mischel, W., & Shoda, Y. (1995). A cognitive-affective system theory of personality: Reconceptualizing situations, dispositions, dynamics, and invariance in personality structure. Psychological Review, 102, 246-268. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.102.2.246
58. Mischel, W., Shoda, Y., & Mendoze-Denton, R. (2002). Situation-behavior profiles as locus of consistency in personality. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 50-54. doi:10.1111/1467-8721.00166
59. Mortensen, C. R., Becker, D. V., Ackerman, J. M., Neuberg, S. L., & Kenrick, D. T. (2010). Infection breeds reticence: The effects of disease salience on self-perceptions of personality and behavioral avoidance tendencies. Psychological Science, 21, 440-447. doi:10.1177/0956797610361706
60. Nelson, E. E., Herman, K. N., Barrett, C. E., Noble, P. L., Wojteczko, K., Chisholm, K.,... Pine, D. S. (2009). Adverse rearing experiences enhance responding to aversive and rewarding stimuli in juvenile rhesus monkeys. Biological Psychiatry, 66, 702-704. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.04.007
61. Nettle, D., & Liddle, B. (2008). Agreeableness is related to social-cognitive, but not social-perceptual, theory of mind. European Journal of Personality, 22, 323-335. doi:10.1002/per.672
62. Neuberg, S. L., Kenrick, D. T., & Schaller, M. (2011). Human threat management systems: Self-protection and disease avoidance. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 35, 1042-1051. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2010.08.011
63. Nordhaus, W. D., Oneal, J. R., & Russett, B. (2009). The effects of security environments on military spending on military expenditures: Pooled analyses of 165 countries, 1950-2000 (Cowles Foundation Discussion Paper No. 1707). Retrieved from http://ssrn.com/abstract=1417380
64. öhman, A., & Mineka, S. (2001). Fear, phobias, and preparedness: Toward an evolved module of fear and fear learning. Psychological Review, 108, 483-522. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.108.3.483
65. Olson, K. R., & Weber, D. A. (2004). Relations between Big Five traits and fundamental motives. Psychological Reports, 95, 795-802.
66. Perner, J., Ruffman, T., & Leekam, S. R. (1994). Theory of mind is contagious: You catch it from your sibs. Child Development, 65, 1228-1238. doi:10.2307/1131316
67. Plutchik, R. (1980). A general psychoevolutionary theory of emotion. In R. Plutchik & H. Kellerman (Eds.), Emotion: Theory, research, and experience: Vol. 1. Theories of emotion (pp. 3-33). New York, NY: Academic Press.
68. Quinlan, L. M. (2009). Leader personality characteristics and their effects on trust in the organizational setting. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, 86, 5091.
69. Roccas, S., Sagiv, L., Schwartz, S. H., & Knafo, A. (2002). The Big Five personality factors and personal values. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 789-801. doi:10.1177/0146167202289008
70. Schachter, S. (1959). The psychology of affiliation: Experimental studies of the sources of gregariousness. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
71. Schaller, M., & Murray, D. R. (2008). Pathogens, personality, and culture: Disease prevalence predicts worldwide variability in sociosexuality, extraversion, and openness to experience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 212-221. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.95.1.212
72. Schmitt, D. P., Allik, J., McCrae, R. R., & Benet-Martinez, V. (2007). The geographic distribution of Big Five personality traits: Patterns and profiles of human self-description across 56 nations. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 38, 173-212. doi:10.1177/0022022106297299
73. Scott, J. P. (1945). Social behavior, organization, and leadership in a small flock of domestic sheep. Comparative Psychology Monographs, 18, 1-29.
74. Sherman, R. A., & Nave, C. S., & Funder, D. C. (2010). Situational similarity and personality predict behavioral consistency. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 330-343. doi:10.1037/a0019796
75. Sneed, C. D. (2002). Correlates and implications for agreeableness in children. Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 136, 59-67. doi:10.1080/00223980209604138
76. Soldz, S., & Vaillant, G. E. (1999). The Big Five personality traits and the life course: A 45-year longitudinal study. Journal of Research in Personality, 33, 208-232. doi:10.1006/jrpe.1999.2243
77. Stankowich, T. (2003). Marginal predation methodologies and the importance of predator preferences. Animal Behaviour, 66, 589-599. doi:10.1006/anbe.2003.2232
78. Taylor, S. E., Klein, L. C., Lewis, B. P., Gruenewald, T. L., Gurung, R. A. R., & Updegraff, J. A. (2000). Biobehavioral responses to stress in females: Tend and befriend, not fight-or-flight. Psychological Review, 107, 411-429. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.107.3.411
79. Van Lange, P. A. M., Otten, W., De Bruin, E. M. N., & Joireman, J. A. (1997). Development of prosocial, individualistic, and competitive orientations: Theory and preliminary evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 733-746. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.73.4.733
80. Van Vugt, M., De Cremer, D., & Janssen, D. (2007). Gender differences in competition and cooperation: The male warrior hypothesis. Psychological Science, 18, 19-23. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01842.x
81. Wallace, M. D. (1979). Arms races and escalations: Some new evidence. In J. D. Singer (Ed.), Explaining war: Selected papers from the correlates of war project (pp. 240-252). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
82. Ward, M. D., & Mahajan, A. K. (1984). Defense expenditures, security threats, and governmental deficits: A case study of India, 1952-1979. The Journal of Conflict Resolution, 28, 382-419. doi:10.1177/0022002784028003002
83. Watt, P. J., & Chapman, R. (1998). Whirligig beetle aggregations: What are the costs and benefits? Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 42, 179-184. doi:10.1007/s002650050429
84. Werner, G., & Dyer, M. (1992). Evolution of herding behavior in artificial animals. In J.-A. Meyer, H. L. Roitblat, & S. W. Wilson (Eds.), Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Simulation of Adaptive Behavior: From Animals to Animats (pp. 393-399). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
85. White, A. E., Li, Y. J., Griskevicius, V., Neuberg, S. L., & Kenrick, D. T. (2012). To diversify or not? Interactions between childhood environment and current threat. Manuscript submitted for publication.
86. Wiedenmayer, C. P. (2009). Plasticity of defensive behavior and fear in early development. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 33, 432-441. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2008.11.004
87. Wilson, M. (1989). Marital conflict and homicide in evolutionary perspective. In R. W. Bell & N. J. Bell (Eds.), Sociobiology and the social sciences (pp. 45-62). Lubbock, TX: Texas Tech University Press.
88. Wisman, A., & Koole, S. L. (2003). Hiding in the crowd: Can mortality salience promote affiliation with others who oppose one's worldviews? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 511-526. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.84.3.511
89. World Values Survey. (2009). WVS 2005-2008 [Data file.] Retrieved from http://www.wvsevsdb.com/wvs/WVSAnalizeSample.jsp