The Influence of the Opposite Sex on Hypothetical Aggressive Inclinations.

Previous research has supported the hypothesis that the presence of a potential mate influences social behavior; however, there is a paucity of work that has extended this to the study of aggression. Thus, the current research had participants ( N = 1,035) view a picture of an attractive or unattractive member of the opposite sex. Participants then imagined themselves in front of the imagined person in a social setting in which they were provoked or not before completing an assessment of aggressive intentions. Results from the 2 (sex of participant) × 2 (attractiveness of the picture) × 2 (provocation or not) analysis of variance showed that males viewing an image of an attractive female had higher aggressive intentions when provoked than males viewing a nonattractive female; however, these effects were not found for female participants.