Weapons as Aggression-Eliciting Stimuli Who Thought of This? This study was done by Leonard Berkowitz and Anthony Lepage at the University of Wisconsin. All of the subjects in this study were students attending the University of Wisconsin in 1967 as well.
What Were They Thinking? The researchers’ hypothesis is that stimuli commonly associated with aggression can elicit aggressive responses from people ready to act aggressively
How Did They Do This? In this study, 100 male university students received either 1 shock (nonangered group) or 7 shocks (angered group), and were then given an opportunity to shock this person. The experiment required two men, a subject and an experimenter. One who would have to solve a problem and the other person evaluating how his partner did, then vice versa. One shock meant a “very good rating”, while 10
shocks indicated a “very poor rating”. Then the subjects would be asked to evaluate their partner’s (the experimenter) work and give them shocks according to their evaluation. For 2 groups, 1 angered and 1 nonangered, there was just the shock key on the table. For 2 other groups, 1 angered and 1 nonangered, there was a gun on the table next to the shock key that they were told belonged to their partner (the experimenter). 2 more groups, 1 angered and 1 nonangered, the weapon was still on the table but the subjects were told the weapon belonged to someone else. The last group found badminton racquets on the table next to the shock key that belonged to someone else other than their partner.
What Did They Find? The subjects who received seven shocks rated themselves as being significantly angrier than the subjects receiving only one shock. Also, the group who received seven shocks reported feeling significantly sadder than the groups receiving only one shock. The presence of
a weapon tremendously affected the number of shocks given by the subject. The angered groups delivered more frequent electrical attacks in the presence of a weapon compared to either of the other two groups.
What Does This Mean? One possibility for these results is that the presence of a weapon in the room could have provoked an aggressive reaction from the person with the gun, thus provoking the subject to be more aggressive towards the experimenter. Another possibility is that the subjects thought that aggressive behavior was required of them since the weapon was on the table.