Distress, Not Ideology or Social Cognition, Predicts Recent Aggressive Acts in a Community Sample

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Abstract
We examined psychological, ideological, social-cognitive, and sociodemographic correlates of recent aggressive behavior using a brief aggression index. In a community sample of adults (N = 1,215), we regressed the aggression index on perceived stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms, perceived social support, mentalizing ability (Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test), right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and contextual and demographic covariates, using ordinary least squares regression with heteroskedasticity-consistent standard errors. Perceived stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms were each positively and uniquely associated with aggression, and hierarchical analyses indicated that the distress block accounted for the largest share of explained variance. Mentalizing ability and the facets of right-wing authoritarianism were not uniquely related to aggression. Social dominance orientation, examined as a composite to avoid suppressor effects between its two highly correlated facets, showed a small inverse association that runs counter to theoretical predictions and that we interpret cautiously. Older age and higher education were associated with lower aggression, whereas being a man, higher subjective social status, higher socio-professional category, and a greater number of children in the household were associated with higher aggression. Robustness analyses, including robust regression and quantile regression, supported these conclusions. Current negative affect and stress emerged as the most consistent correlates of recent aggression, beyond ideology, social cognition, and background covariates. Framing aggression as recent behavior complements trait approaches and clarifies which individual differences are proximally associated with everyday aggression.

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