Sex differences in modes of social influence chosen as a function of attack and motive

Abstract

This experiment was designed to study the behavior of a naive subject who was placed in a situation where he or she had the task of persuading another person to carry out a simple instruction. Six means of persuasion were made available to the subject. Two of these were physical means of persuasion, giving of pennies and delivery of electric shock. Two of these were verbal, request cooperation and demand cooperation. Two of these were considered to be intermediate between physical and verbal, threat of shock and promise of pennies. The experimental conditions included sex of subject, level of attack, reward contingency, and trials. One specific purpose of the study was to establish the possibility of studying aggression in a persuasion paradigm. The predictions, therefore, were based on results from aggression studies. It was predicted that males would use more electric shock than females, that subjects who were attacked would use more electric shock than subjects who were not attacked, and that subjects who were persuading for a personal monetary reward would shock more than subjects who were persuading to help another person win a monetary reward. It was also predicted that use of all means of persuasion would increase over trials

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