Frustration–aggression hypothesis reconsidered: The role of significance quest

Abstract

One of the oldest scientific theories of human aggression is the frustration-aggression hypothesis, advanced in 1939. Although this theory has received considerable empirical support and is alive and well today, its underlying mechanisms have not been adequately explored. In this article, we examine major findings and concepts from extant psychological research on hostile aggression and offer an integrative conception: aggression is a primordial means for establishing one's sense of significance and mattering, thus addressing a fundamental social-psychological need. Our functional portrayal of aggression as a means to significance yields four testable hypotheses: (1) frustration will elicit hostile aggression proportionately to the extent that the frustrated goal serves the individual's need for significance, (2) the impulse to aggress in response to significance loss will be enhanced in conditions that limit the individual's ability to reflect and engage in extensive information processing (that may bring up alternative, socially condoned means to significance), (3) significance-reducing frustration will elicit hostile aggression unless the impulse to aggress is substituted by a nonaggressive means of significance restoration, (4) apart from significance loss, an opportunity for significance gain can increase the impulse to aggress. These hypotheses are supported by extant data as well as novel research findings in real-world contexts. They have important implications for understanding human aggression and the conditions under which it is likely to be manifested and reduced.

Feeling bad about feeling good? how avengers and observers evaluate the hedonic pleasure of taking revenge

“…Cultural factors possibly play an impor tant role in the social evaluation of revenge-seekers. For instance, revenge is considered to be more appropriate (and, actually, expectable) in cultures of honor, which is why tak ing revenge may restore the victim's sense of significance in these cultures (Kruglanski et al, 2023). Correspondingly, avengers are judged less harshly in these cultures.…”

Are reactions to frustrative nonreward in other animals a model for human anger? Neurobehavioral implications and therapeutic applications.

“…However, attempts to apply the model more widely resulted in patently circular definitions in which any provocation to aggression was relabeled as “frustration.” A good example of badly simplistic overgeneralization was the frustration–aggression interpretation of associations between unsuccessful hunts and crop failures in “nonliterate” societies with their sacrifices to deities and intergroup warfare (Triandis & Lambert, 1961), an interpretation that ignored relevant explanatory factors ranging from hunger to cultural tradition. Integrating an impressively broad sweep of human experience, Kruglanski et al (2023) have reformulated the frustration–aggression relationship as one aspect of people’s “quest for significance” but, in the process may have underplayed important differences in aggression typology, phenomena, and processes.…”

“…From the human perspective, it would be a challenge, for example, to design a situation for other animals that distinguish between justified and unjustified frustration, the latter being more aggression provoking for people (Dill & Anderson, 1995). Frustration caused by cultural/symbolic challenges to goal attainment would be similarly difficult to model (Kruglanski et al, 2023). Another concern is that rumination has been shown to exacerbate and prolong FNR-induced anger (D.…”

Ambition‐driven aggression in response to significance‐threatening frustration

“…This suggests that the kind of frustration that elicits an aggressive response is frustration of one's need to matter, have social worth, and be accorded respect and significance (Kruglanski et al, 2022(Kruglanski et al, , 2023.…”

“…One may do so through direct vengeance against the person or group responsible for one's humiliation, but also through displaced aggression when a direct punishment of one's detractor is unfeasible (Buss & Shackelford, 1997;Higgins, 2012;Bushman & Baumeister, 1998). Although the primitive aggression-significance connection may be universal, however, individual differences in the need for significance, such as those seen among more and less ambitious people, should determine people's reactions to significance-threatening events (Kruglanski et al, 2023). Such differences can affect (1) the thresholds for perceived significance loss and…”