The effects of attributional style and empathy on the type of aggression displayed

Abstract

This paper explored two major questions: (a) what is the relationship between attributional styles and the type of aggression displayed, and (b) does empathy serve as a moderator between attributional style and aggression. Three pilot studies were conducted: two to develop a procedure to prime internal and external attributional styles (Studies 1a and 1b), the other (Study 2) to develop a procedure for experimentally arousing empathy. Study 3 adopted these processes to investigate the effects of attributional style and empathy on proactive and reactive aggression. Results found attributional style to have a significant effect on aggression, with internal attributional styles decreasing levels of reactive aggression. Empathy did not obtain significant effects nor did it moderate the attributional styles-reactive aggression relationship.