Hostile and helpful verbalizations as regulators of nonverbal aggression

Investigated the relationship between verbal cues and motor aggression. 51 male undergraduates were verbally reinforced for selecting and speaking either aggressive, neutral, or helpful words. On a subsequent test for nonverbal aggression in which Ss had an opportunity to shock another individual, those reinforced for aggressive verbalizations were more aggressive, whereas those reinforced for helpful verbalizations were less aggressive than those in the neutral word group. Findings are consistent with the view that both the elicitation and inhibition of nonverbal aggression can be regulated by verbal cues. The importance of overt verbalization and reinforcement in achieving this control is briefly discussed.