Journal
PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
Volume 18, Issue 7, Pages 649-655Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01953.x
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Funding
- NIAAA NIH HHS [R01-AA-11691] Funding Source: Medline
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This article presents the first systematic test of the attention-allocation model for alcohol-related aggression. According to this model, alcohol has a myopic effect on attentional capacity that presumably facilitates aggression by focusing attention on more salient provocative, rather than less salient inhibitory, cues in hostile situations. Aggression was assessed using a laboratory task in which mild electric shocks were received from, and administered to, a fictitious opponent. Study 1 demonstrated that a moderate-load cognitive distractor suppressed aggression in intoxicated subjects (to levels even lower than those exhibited by a placebo control group). Study 2 assessed how varying the magnitude of a distracting cognitive load affected aggression in the alcohol and placebo conditions. Results indicated that the moderate-load distraction used in Study 1 (i.e., holding four elements in sequential order in working memory) suppressed aggression best. Cognitive loads of larger and smaller magnitudes were not successful in attenuating aggression.
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