Two experiments employing white subjects examined the effects of anonymity, expected retaliation, race of target, and a campus racial disturbance on delivered and anticipated aggression (electric shock). Prior to statistical treatment, the data were subjected to principal components analyses, with three aggression components being identified: general direct aggression, extremes in direct aggression, and indirect aggression. In Experiment I, it was found that less direct and more indirect forms of aggression were delivered to black than to white targets when there was opportunity for the target to retaliate. When retaliation was unlikely, the subjects delivered more direct forms of aggression to black than to white targets. Following a campus racial disturbance, there were increases in direct forms of aggression toward black targets, with such aggression now being less dependent on the opportunity for retaliation (Experiment II). In both experiments more direct aggression was anticipated from black than from white targets. The results support the conclusion that white persons have learned to fear black retaliation, but that this fear acts only to inhibit direct forms of aggression in certain denned situations.Among the most salient characteristics of the current black movement is the use of violence or the threat of violence to produce equality between black and white people. Black authors (e.g., Baldwin, 1963), as well as certain black militant leaders, have emphasized that the black man is determined to get equal rights and that white society must change or face reprisals. It is not surprising then to find some anecdotal evidence which suggests that white people have learned to fear black retaliation. A good example is an excerpt from a letter to the editor published by the Northern Illinois University student newspaper, The Northern Star:We are going to ask that our names be withheld from this letter. Don't bother writing in to sneer, 'what'sa matter whitey, you scared?' Yeah, we are. You militants may feel free to gloat. Those of us, 1 This study is based on a thesis presented by the first author to the Department of Psychology at Northern Illinois University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the MA degree. It was reported at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Cincinnati, April 1970. The first and second authors are now at Florida State University.2 Requests for reprints should be sent to Seymore
A 2X2X2 factorial design was employed to investigate the effect of instructions, a first model, and a second model on the self-reinforcement of children. The subject's self-reinforcement was measured on three separate occasions while the subject played a preprogrammed bowling game in the absence of the models. Previous researchers have found that self-reinforcement was a function of both the rule and the model's behavior, but they were unable to determine what differential effects recency and concordance played on these two factors as they affected the subject's self-reinforcement. The present study replicated the former results and, in addition, found that concordance between the rule and a recent model was most effective in leading to acceptance of the rule, despite a tendency for the subjects to adopt lenient self-reinforcement criteria when given an opportunity to do so. Suggestions for future research are offered.
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